Beyond The Clouded Dawn
by Phoenix Cubed
Summary: If the future is bleak, the Son philosophy says it can only get better. But with his father and the Z Warriors all long gone, Future Gohan fights against the growing possibility that his world is dying and there might not be anything he can do about it..
1. Chapter 1 What a Future Holds

AUTHOR READ ME: 

Everyone has read stories about Trunks and his adventures in the future. Sometimes they're about androids, sometimes they're about reflections on events that he has witnessed, and sometimes they're about his desperate struggle to simply survive in the crazed timeline he calls his own. Quite frequently, though, up pops a story that involves Future Trunks on a visit back to the past and the unaltered timeline. Usually said story involves a humorous situation with various established characters of his wishful past. But to be very funny, Trunks sometimes finds himself bringing along a character that might or might not actually exist in his time to make things especially interesting for a certain teenaged half-saiyan in the past. Pan. Actual humor content aside, these stories bring up an interesting point. In a world where chaos reigns and misery is a part of everyday life, is it possible that Gohan could find the time or reason to love or even start a family? Though slim, the possibility is there, and written out here, in my version of the timeline that should have never been. Whether or not it is a belief you would like to explore is a decision made between the back button and the scroll bar. So move on or read on, dear reader, for there are worse places to spend your time. 

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Beyond The Cloudy Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 1

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Damn the androids, damn them to Hell. 

Gohan sat silently on the cracked spire, elbows on his knees and legs dangling over the round sides of the fallen building top that was suspended two hundred feet in the air. The ceramisteel needle had once pierced the sky for hundreds of feet, crowning the Global Peace Tower to help it set a world record of building height of over half a mile. After that, international regulators had decreed buildings could not exceed heights not half its size, to make it easier for incoming and outgoing airplanes. And, as Krillin once joked, for low flying warriors not watching their flight path. 

Not that any of that mattered now. When the androids had come, the building had immediately caught their attention—as target practice. The biomechanical twins had taken such delight in watching the slender structure fall from its once elated position and onto the panicking throng of people below. It had been only by the grace of Kami that Gohan had been able to deflect it in time onto the tops of a pair of squat, sturdy buildings of equal height. The spire had crashed down and shaken the foundations of the two buildings, but then settled solidly across them like a sturdy tabletop. After that, the androids had then become more interested in trying to kill Gohan, and so the spire was forgotten in favor of better games to play. 

But Gohan still remembered. The Tower was once a place of thriving activity and industry, not to mention the residence of one of the best dining places in Japan. Dinner at the Laughing Dragon was one of the last activities that the Sons had done as a family, before the virus… 

Headwinds picked up and whipped about the broken corners of the abandoned buildings that decorated the decimated city. Whistling through their cracks, the wind echoed in the half-Sayain's tired ears, sounding like the ghostly screams of those who had breathed their last on the now quiet streets far below. Gohan sat up straight and stretched his hands to the sky, letting out an expansive yawn that cracked his jaw. Taking note of the setting sun, he realized that he'd been sitting atop the spire for most of the day, and idly he wondered where the day had gone. Mother would worry if he didn't get back soon. The man quirked a half-smile and allowed himself to slide down the spire's smooth surface until he felt himself free falling rapidly towards the ground. He somersaulted to right himself and let his energy build. Then, a mere foot from receiving a very nasty impact bruise, he blasted into the air and towards the direction of home.

He did as he always did, flying high over city and country alike, both barren and wasted in the aftermath of battles and massacres. Here and there he could feel the faint flicker of energies, normal humans who had survived the many years of torment and misery under the androids. He had learned over the years to be sensitive to even the slightest amount of life energy, a trait necessary to save as many humans as possible from the attacking androids. The poor wretches had no idea why the beasts had come out of nowhere, bent on the destruction of everyone and everything. They did not know who was to blame for their plight, or why there even was one. It was the extent of Dr. Gero's villainy that he should set about the destruction of the world for revenge against one single man. How ironic it was that Goku died before the androids were even completed; and that, upon completion, their first act of cruelty had been to end Gero's. Justice, it seemed, was not without a sense of humor. 

The sun was below the horizon by the time Gohan began his decent into Son Chi Chi's yard, and only the refracted light of the life-giving star gave any illumination in the darkening sky. Gohan's boots made no noise as he shuffled slowly across his yard, his dark eyes drifting about the lawn as he let the familiar surroundings break down his defenses that he built for a day of fighting androids and saving frightened humans. For a moment, the man simply stood quietly in the yard, letting the memories of good times long gone flit across his eyes and take him far away from the harsh reality he wished he could wake up from. Dimly he was aware of shuffling from inside the house, and it reminded him of why he stayed in the bleak existence someone had thought to deem life. 

The door opened, and the silhouette of a short, slender woman appeared. "Gohan!" Chi Chi called out, "come inside! Dinner's ready."

"Coming, mom." Gohan shook the demons from his mind and followed his mother through the doorway, letting the here and now chase away the shadows that lurked in the corners of his eyes.

Dinner was, as usual, spectacular. Chi Chi was as wonderful a cook as she was a mother, and Gohan would have words with anyone who ever questioned the greatness of his upbringing. It must have been hard, if not downright impossible at times, to raise the son of a Saiyan in a world that was constantly out to kill them. And especially hard without the love and support of the father, of the man who had been and said that he would always be there. But of course, that had been before anyone had known of the heart virus and how it would become a grievous foreshadowing of things to come. Yet through it all, Chi Chi had remained the faithful wife and strong mother that Gohan knew her to be. Always there with a kind word or encouraging smile, she hid the grief she felt for Goku deep within her. But Gohan knew that it was beginning come out. Heard in the more frequent questioning of Gohan's crusade and seen in tired expression she seemed to wear when she thought no one was looking, there was little argument against the fact that Chi Chi was slowly losing the battle against age and grief. 

"Gohan? Gohan! Are you listening to me?" Chi Chi's strong voice cut through her son's thoughts. He looked up to see a worried expression on his mother's face as her weathering hand came to press against his forehead. She clucked a bit, "it's not hot, but are you feeling ill, Gohan? You haven't eaten much tonight."

Gohan gave her a weary smile, "I'm fine, mom, just not that hungry, that's all."

"Not hungry!" There was a touch of worry underlining the outrage in Chi Chi's voice. "Since when is a Saiyan 'not hungry'? Especially when you didn't eat breakfast this morning, either."

"I'm sorry, mom," Gohan replied, beginning to push back his chair—only to have it abruptly stopped by Chi Chi's foot on one of the back legs.

"Listen, buster," Chi Chi bristled, "you weren't home to eat yesterday and you didn't have any breakfast this morning, so you are _not_ leaving this table until you've eaten at _least_ three chickens. _Is that clear?_"

Gohan slid deep into his seat, trying to squirm out of the dark glare his mother was shooting him. "Yes ma'am," he replied meekly, his eyes dropping to the chicken that had found its way onto his plate. He stared at it a moment, trying hard to hide the feeling of nausea that was beginning to broil in his stomach. Chi Chi watched him expectantly, her fingers drumming against her arm in a gesture that spoke volumes. Gohan picked up a drumstick and sunk his teeth into it, causing his mother to beam happily at him. It was then that Gohan decided the satisfaction Chi Chi received from ensuring her son's health worth the nightmares that would spring from the meal later that night. Gohan then began the laborious process of dinner and the act of pretending that he could still taste the savory goodness of the food and enjoy it, just the way he once had. He even managed to choke down a pot of rice in front of his mother's smiling face. At last the meal was over and Gohan kissed his mother on the cheek, complimenting everything on the menu before saying goodnight. 

"Oh, Gohan!" His mother's voice called after him. 

He paused on his route up the stairs to turn and give her a curious look, "yes?"

"Bulma called earlier. She said that the androids were spotted today a few miles north of the Eastern Mountains. There's a small community located somewhere in that area and she wants you to head over there and evaluate it for her. Bulma would go, but Trunks has come down with something and she doesn't want to leave him until he's well."

Gohan blinked in surprise. Mother was telling him to go into possible danger? What was wrong with this picture? Oh. Gohan flashed his mother a grin, "they're not still there, are they." It was a statement, not a question.

"Of course they're not." Chi Chi gave her son a scowl, "do you think I would have told you if there was a chance they would be? Honestly, Gohan."

The half-breed laughed, "all right, mom. I'll go first thing in the morning." He turned to head to bed. "Goodnight, mom."

Chi Chi replied warmly to her son, quietly watching the brave way he ascended the stairs and entered his room, committing himself to another night of unshakable night terrors and mares. Turning back to the warm kitchen, Chi Chi gave a tired sigh. Not feeling quite up to the task of dishes, the aging woman laboriously made her way into the doorway leading to the outside.

"Goku," she whispered to the carrying wind, "we could use a little hope right now."

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Well? More chapters to follow soon! Review! Review!


	2. Chapter 2 A Brief Meeting

For those of you who might know who I am through that little "For Life" stint I did a few weeks back, you might be interested to know that the requested continuation of that short is in the making. However, after an interesting conversation with a fellow otaku, I got a wonderful multi-chapter story idea. So what was to be just another short has turned into something not so short. But it'll be worth it, trust me. For now, though, think of this story as a prologue of things to come.

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Beyond The Cloudy Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 2

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The sun rose brightly over the horizon the next morning, determined to thwart the perpetual cloudy mood that hung over mankind's consciousness. Gohan tied the waste band snugly about his dark orange Gi, freshly laundered and pressed by his mother. He wondered if it was at all odd that he, at an age to be legal in nearly every country in the world, should still be relying heavily on his mom for clean clothes to wear. 

Not that he had time to do laundry. 

Shuffling down the stairs, Gohan passed through the kitchen to inform his mother that he was on his way out. Disregarding the inviting array of breakfast items displayed on the table, Gohan fished about the fridge for a bottle of juice and quickly chugged it down. His actions caught the attention of Chi Chi, who turned from her attentions at the sink to reprimand her son.

"Gohan!" She cried, swatting him lightly on the shoulder, "you know better than that!" 

"Sorry mom," Gohan managed to look sheepish. "At least its empty, though." He told her, jiggling the bottle a bit to emphasize his excuse. 

Chi Chi rolled her eyes and took the bottle from his hands and put it in the disposal. Turning back to him, she looked her son over with a critical eye, then pressed a package of meat crepes into his objecting hands. "Those will be gone before you come back, Gohan," she informed him. Then she also handed him a basket laden with food. "For Trunks," she said, an indirect command to drop by the Briefs' home. Gohan, already planning a visit, obliged her with a smile and headed out the door. 

"Bye, mom! Don't worry about dinner, I don't know when I'll get back!"

"Be careful, Gohan! I don't want to hear you've been fighting this time."

"All right, mom." Gohan waved to his mother and sprung into the air, "see you in a few days!"

Chi Chi waved for a moment out the kitchen window, then disappeared back into its warmer interior. Gohan took that opportunity to fly higher and faster, the best strategy for avoiding unwanted company. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes it didn't. Though the biomechanical terrors couldn't sense energy the way the Gohan could, a person would have to blind to miss the vapor trails that were often left behind in times of extremely high speeds. Generally, though, the androids didn't bother to look up. Most of their fun was found scrambling for cover on or underground. 

The flight to the crumbling remains of the once renowned Capsule Corporation headquarters was blissfully uneventful. Gohan landed in the yard just as a small lavender haired boy came running out of the metal barri-door.

"Gohan!" Trunks waved enthusiastically at Gohan as the closest thing he had to a father figure in his life came in for a landing. "Mom said you might come by today!"

"Didn't she say that you were sick, too?" Gohan asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

"Mom worries too much," Trunks replied. But Gohan could see the flush of Trunks' cheeks and felt the way that the boy's energy fluctuated up and down more than what was normal for an active young demi-Saiyan. Not wanting to belittle the boy and doubt his words, but worried for his health, Gohan opted for the best approach when dealing with a member of the Briefs' family.

"Well, sick or not," Gohan smiled at the boy and ruffled his odd colored hair, "your mom thinks you are, and I'd rather go up against the androids with only an arm and a leg than argue with her. Why don't we go inside? I brought you breakfast."

Blue eyes widened with delight as Trunks expressed his enthusiasm over Chi Chi's cooking, but his celebrations were cut short when he doubled over in a fit of coughing. Shaking his head, Gohan shifted the basket into one hand and lifted the infirmed child into his free arm, bringing him backnside and back to his mother.

"There you are!" Bulma Briefs' voice carried to Gohan's hearing, and he did his best not to wince as the blue-haired woman came hurrying up to him, a blanket in her arms and a grimace on her face. "Honestly, Trunks, you're only going to get worse if you don't stay in bed!" 

"But mom, I had to—" Trunks tried to protest, though Gohan wondered why he even bothered.

"No 'buts,' kiddo," Bulma scolded her son as Gohan eased the boy from his arms and into the custody of his mother. Wrapping the thick blanket securely around him, she ushered Trunks back to his room, an amused Gohan in tow. 

Trunks, though still protesting, willingly climbed back into bed and allowed his mother to even throw on a few more quilts over him for good measure. Propped up against the bed headboard by a few thin pillows, Trunks waited for Bulma to finish fussing over him before he turned to Gohan with eagerness dancing about his face. "So what's in the basket, Gohan?"

Gohan chuckled and handed the boy Chi Chi's handiwork. "Have at it, Squirt, while I talk to your mom a bit."

Trunks readily agreed to the deal, and was soon tearing into the basket's foodstuffs. Gohan wondered if the boy would be so enthusiastic about it if he knew what Chi Chi had put in the food besides flavor to help speed along his recovery. Bulma must have been thinking the same thing, because she declined Trunks' offer to a portion of the basket's contents, instead opting to lead the older half-Saiyan out of the room so they could speak. 

Shutting the door, Bulma gave it a quick glance before leading Gohan into the living room, "that boy," she tisked.

Gohan looked somewhat perplexed, "I never remember being sick when I was young," he mused.

"He's not so much sick as he is stupid," she scowled. "If he'd listened to me when I told him _not_ to mix those chemicals together because the results would be _dangerous_, then he wouldn't be in bed now, recovering from vapor sickness. There's something about boys after the age of seven that makes them lose any ability to listen to sense."

Gohan thought that to be slightly unfair. "Hey, I listen."

"Oh really," Bulma quirked an eyebrow at him.

Gohan nodded.

"Do you still fight the androids?"

"Of course."

"Then you're not listening."

Gohan didn't know how to answer that.

Thankfully, Bulma didn't give him a chance, but instead plowed through to the point of his visit. "The news reports said yesterday that the androids were seen near the Eastern Mountains. The odd thing is, they've been saying that for the last two weeks."

Gohan blinked, "Why haven't I heard this before?"

"Because the normal reporters were caught by the androids and the broadcast was out for a time, and the Eastern Mountain range isn't exactly a thriving metropolis. There's no real reason those things would want to be over there—except that they have been, but now they're not."

"Hm." Gohan rested his elbow on his hand and shook his finger at his old friend, "this explains why you're so interested. Normally you don't care where they are as long as it's not near you."

She snorted, "those bastards can go jolly themselves for all I care. But there's rumored to be people over there."

Gohan nodded, understanding perfectly. If there was one thing he knew about the androids, it was that for all their power, they were little more than children--and with the attention spans to match. If they had spent a whole week in one area, it meant either one of two things: that there'd been enough people hidden in the mountains to give them that much sport, or that whatever had caught their interest had slipped from their grasp, and had continued to do so long enough for the androids to either catch them or lose interest. If it were any of the former, there might be people in great need of help. But if it were the latter, it would be interesting to see the briar patch that withstood such cunning foxes. Either way, it bore investigation. 

Bulma turned to her worktable, moving things about with an assortment of thoughtful noises to accent her actions. Finally, she turned back to Gohan with a small, sandwich sized case. "This is an emergency capsule kit. Its got food and water capsules, as well as what first aid supplies I can spare." 

"I'm sure whatever's there'll be plenty," Said Gohan.

"I certainly hope so," Bulma responded. She gripped Gohan's dark blue undershirt and used it to spin him around, reaching the knapsack on his back. "I'll put the kit next to your lunch so you don't lose it—" she turned him back around to face her and gave the young Saiyan a look. "—Your lunch, that is."

"Oh, Bulma—"

But Bulma wouldn't hear it, "don't you dare try that tone of voice with me. It doesn't work for Trunks, its certainly not going to work with you!"

Gohan sighed and hung his head, resigning himself to another lecture as Bulma plowed on. "Don't think that I haven't noticed, Buster. You Saiyans are supposed to be bottomless pits, capable of eating an entire city's food source in one sitting!" She poked him in the ribs, "you haven't asked for a meal in nearly a month! Its not healthy, Gohan, your mom and I worry about you."

The room was silent for a moment. Try as he might, though, Gohan could think of nothing to say in his defense. Bulma looked at him with a soft expression on her face, bordering on maternal. "Now I know you've been saying that you've just lost your appetite, but the truth is that you've lost much more than that. You've been at this, what? Ten years now? Not hardly older than Trunks is now when this whole mess started. That's a long time, Gohan, to watch your world fall apart." She stopped and smiled at him, tugging at the front of his Gi, "But we're proud of you, even if we're not all here to say it. So don't let us down by giving up just yet. Okay?"

Gohan nodded, giving the woman a small, half smile, "okay."

"Great." Bulma turned the demi-Saiyan around again, giving him a smack on his backside to send him on his way. "Now get out of here before Trunks finishes the basket and wants to go with you."

Gohan chuckled and waved a hand over his shoulder as he headed out the door, "if he could still walk after all that food."

Bulma shut the door behind Gohan and watched through the window as he took off from the yard and flew off to the distance. Once he was well out of sight, she went back to her son's room to check on him. Not surprisingly, the basket lay on its side near the bed, and Trunks was snuggled deep under the covers, looking for all the world like he was asleep. But as Bulma approached him, his eyes slid partially open and he looked up to his mother.

"Did Gohan leave?" He asked, his voice hardly above a sleepy murmur. 

Bulma nodded.

"Do you think he'll find it?"

The woman looked at the boy, "find what?"

But Trunks' eyes had slid shut again, and this time Bulma saw that he was truly asleep, and whatever it was that Trunks felt Gohan needed was lost to the world of dreams.

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Reviews? Please? Starving author at work here!


	3. Chapter 3 To Catch a Devil

Thanks for the reviews! Its nice to know that there are a whole three people reading this. ^.^;; Though I will readily admit, the first two chapters did little in the way of enticing people. Let's see if this one drags a few more in. Responses to reviewers will be at the bottom of the page.

Disclaimer: Akira Toriyama is the god of DBZ, all hail he who feeds us. 

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Beyond The Cloudy Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 3

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As the crow flew, it was just over a three-hour flight to the Eastern Mountains. As the Saiyan flew, it didn't take Gohan more than a half an hour to reach the craggy peaks—fifteen minutes if he was in a rush. Unfortunately, because of the androids, there was no reason to hurry, so the flight was long and highly uneventful. The area had long ago become depopulated by the demonic duo, so there were no persons' energies for Gohan to seek out and mentally tag for location; a habit he had picked up years ago to help what authorities were left keep track of the declining amount of people. 

A bitter upside to the rapid human depopulation of the planet was the great repopulation of ecosystems that would have never had a chance with the dominant humanoid species about. In recent years Gohan had begun to fly through airspace that, when he was younger, he had been warned to stay away from because it had been so choked with noxious fumes and chemicals from industrialization. Large grassy fields grew where concrete jungles had once upon soared, felled and returned to nature by the androids; though Gohan knew their motives had not been so altruistic. The birds sang with more gusto than ever before, and all but the largest of dragons and dinosaurs—who were targets of the androids when human pickings were slim—could be seen freely roaming around nearly everywhere, instead of only the remote, deserted areas where people did not dare settle.

A shadow swept across the flying half-breed. Thoughts of animals always made Gohan think of Icarus, his one time pet Hiya Dragon turned all time friend. Icarus had been vital to pulling the boy from his grief stricken melancholy after Goku's death, forcing him out into the world of continuing life and rebirth to play and move on. Even Chi Chi had occasionally given into the affectionate brushes and deep throated purring of the pony sized hatchling. But then the adorable baby dragon had begun to grow like mad at the same time Gohan had begun his own adolescent growth spurts. And then one day by chance, while Gohan lay hidden from the androids, he had watched them hunt down and destroy a family of the biggest Pterosaurs in the Five-Thirty-Nine Mountain Area, crushing the eggs and tearing the giant dinosaurs' wings from their bodies for use as sails and kites. Their laughter had rung in Gohan's ears all the way home, until Icarus, then only half the size of the destroyed Pterosaurs, had nuzzled the boy in hopes of comforting him. It was then that Gohan had made the hardest decision of his life. Icarus was too big to live in the open land around Gohan's home without eventually calling attention to himself. Not even the ancient forest would hide him properly. So to save the dragon's life, the boy had been callous and harsh, pushing his friend away and telling him to leave and never, ever return. It had hurt them both a great deal, but Icarus had obeyed his friends' wishes, and Gohan never saw him again except within the safe confines of his dreams. 

The wind took an abrupt change of direction and speed, forcing Gohan from his thoughts and onto matters at hand. Before him loomed the extensive mountain range of the East. Stopping not too far from the rocky sides of the looming boulder giants, it was easy to spot the scorched and smoldering remains of energy blasts. Charred matchsticks gave signs as to where trees once stood and large craters were pleasing indications of android frustration. 

Releasing his life energy and letting it slowly dissipate back into his body, Gohan made a gentle decent to a smooth outcropping of rock. High on the mountaintop, the air was thin and cool; the demi-human closed his eyes and gathered a lungful of the refreshing mountain aroma. A breeze drifted by to ruffle the man's spiked hair and set his flesh to tingling, making him smile and relax further into the moment. His mind clear and his body at ease, Gohan once more gathered the sleeping abilities within him and put them to work. 

Once upon a very long time ago, Vegeta had given the only son of Goku a heritage lesson. It had been brief, blunt, and somewhat condescending, but Gohan had learned a great deal about the way the Saiyan race worked. While in theory every race of being could use and manipulate life and spirit energy, each race channeled the energy in a way that was unique to that race alone. The Saiyans, however, took it one step further in that each member of the species could further specialize themselves in a way that few else could. Though Gohan could not remember precisely what Vegeta had called it, the prince had explained that Gohan was highly in tune to energy of nearly any sort. Saiyans such as Gohan would need a ki technique demonstrated only once to understand it and replicate it, could meet a person a single time and later isolate and identify them by their energy signature at anytime or place. Or, as Gohan was doing now, detect even the lowest levels of energy without knowing precisely where a person was, as long as he had an idea of what he was looking for. 

Or at least, he was _supposed_ to be doing. 

Gohan frowned and pushed the searching fingers of his energy further out, willing the tendrils of his ability to seek out and latch onto anything. Stretching and seeking, there was nothing as far as he could feel—wait…no, just a rabbit. The man frowned and shook off his search, taking to the air to find another spot and try again. 

Four hours and five tries later, still nothing. 

Gohan crossed his arms and tapped his foot in annoyance, ignoring the fact that the motion was out of place several hundred feet above the ground he was meant to tap. Something odd was about, and Gohan was feeling like the butt of a very cruel joke. He had been around the entire mountain range _twice_, and all he had succeeded in doing was to frighten a large flock of rooks nestling in the cracks of the mountainside. There was absolutely _nothing_ anywhere, not even a decaying body. In one perspective, that was a very good sign, as it meant the androids probably had about as much luck as Gohan in locating people. But on the other hand, Gohan had never been so frustrated. He was about five minutes from sympathizing with the androids and blasting a few craters of his own. This was ridiculous! Had there not been recent signs of the androids all around the mountains, Gohan would have assumed the information Bulma had given him to be inaccurate, or that he had the wrong mountains. Perhaps it was possible that the rumors of people hiding in the Eastern Mountains were just that—rumors. That being the case, Gohan would gladly accept the feelings of foolishness that crept about his insides. After all, the androids had fallen for the same trap. 

But no, there was definitely something odd about the whole situation. There should be _some_ sign of humanity. Gohan knew for a fact that there was once a small village nestled in a valley between two mountain peaks in the Eastern Range. He had visited it once while searching for the dragonballs, and he was there again now, hovering just above the area that was supposed to be a village, or at least the remains of one. But the area had been completely cleared, leveled, and given back to nature, leaving no evidence humanity had ever been there.

The urge to participate in a destructive vent of frustration came again as Gohan glared at nothing. He was in the exact spot the village had been, he was sure of it! Yet there were no signs of humans ever living on the grass bitten surface. The man brought his hand up to his jaw and gave his chin a thoughtful scratch. Not willing to give into the possibility that he was wrong, Gohan mentally searched for a logical explanation to the vanishing village. One thing was for sure; this was not the work of the androids. The effort to was too neat and thoughtful to be done by them. It was a possibility that the village had been disassembled in an effort to hide from the creatures. Gohan certainly wouldn't have thought twice about the area if he hadn't known better. 

But he did know better. And that was why yet another hour was whittled away with Gohan's arms crossed over his chest and his eyes looking straight ahead, glaring at ab-so-lutely _nothing_. 

Another strong wind picked up, this time with enough force that Gohan felt himself be pushed forward a bit. He braced himself slightly and turned his head to keep the grit from his eyes. Then the wind gave an abrupt switch of direction, shoving Gohan again from the opposite direction and throwing dirt directly into his dark irises. He sighed in defeat and decided to let the day win the round, he could always come back tomorrow. 

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Clink. Clink.

Gohan's head shot up and his ears twitched in interest. Whatever in the world was that?

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Clink. Clink.

Letting his hearing guide him, Gohan squashed the excitement brewing in his gut and concentrated on the noise at hand. It was surprising, what he found. There, tucked between two boulders, was a small metal pole with a chain dangling from a small, rusty iron ring at its top. The wind howled again and wedged itself in between the boulders, catching the oxidized chain and lifting it just enough so that it swayed and fell back against the pole.

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Clink. Clink.

Gohan smiled in satisfaction. Though insubstantial in itself, the artifact proved that Gohan was indeed accurate in his thinking, and that whatever gods did exist, they were not always out to make his life miserable. 

Still, there was the matter of what had happened to the rest of the village, who had done it, and where the people had gone. He would need to think on this awhile. 

Deciding there was little else for him to do that day, Gohan took once more to the air and began to fly back to the Capsule Corporation. After a bit of deliberation, he thought it best to speak with Bulma before finding a place to sleep for the night. He didn't much feel like going back to his mother's house; especially considering that the meat crepes still sat in his knapsack, cold and untouched. Maybe he could give them to Trunks. Loss of appetite or no, Gohan was still a Saiyan, and he hated to see good food go to waste. 

Not hardly had Gohan reached cruising altitude when he felt the barest twinge of something nibble at his senses. Gohan slammed on the brakes and froze in mid air—not a some_thing_, but a some_one_. Immediately he pushed his own energy out and latched onto the small energy he had felt. Before he even knew what he was doing, Gohan had taken off and was speeding towards the small life source he had sensed. Flying towards it made the man realize that the energy he had felt was not small, only far away. As he drew nearer the power bloomed to the intensity somewhat just beyond that of a normal human. It made Gohan curious as to who, or what, might be generating such a level. Maybe a minor demon had ventured from its cave, or a young dragon even. Dragons, Gohan knew from experience, gave off very little life energy, but that didn't make them any less lethal. Even the androids had a healthy respect for an angry adult dragon. 

The power gave a tiny burst and Gohan adjusted his angle to zero in on the location of the owner. Zipping over a few tall hills, the man found himself just north of the mountains and approaching the Cliffs, an eroded part of the mountain foothills that adopted a sparsely vegetated ecosystem. He slowed down, realizing that he was very near to what or whoever had caught his attention, and began to carefully look about. A movement out of the corner of his eye caught Gohan's notice, and he turned fully around to see the biggest surprise of his life.

There, a good four hundred feet up from the ground, perched a human on a rocky cliff face, looking for all the world about to fall. Looking as if _she_ were about to fall. A very pretty she, to be exact. 

Gohan slowly drifted closer to what he now saw was a young woman, no older than him, but perhaps a year or two younger. He watched in guilty amusement as she struggled to find purchase in the very sheer side of the cliff, noting with interest that the woman seemed undecided as to whether she wanted to go up or down the vertical grade. At least she was well equipped for the climb with her black leather knuckle gloves and rough tread hiking boots, though her clothes had certainly seen better days. A loose white Tee that was dust covered and frayed at the edges hung low over a pair of cut off blue jeans, and her raven hair was caught in two worn yellow bands to hang like horsetails over her shoulders. It was a picture Gohan would have been content to watch all day had he not been afraid of gravity bringing it to an abrupt end. So, floating some five feet from the struggling girl, Gohan decided it was time to offer his services. 

"Uh," Gohan cleared his throat, "excuse me."

The woman screamed and jerked in surprise. The rock under her boot gave way and Gohan watched in alarm as she began to fall. However, at the last second the girl's hand swept out and managed to catch a jutting stone. She grunted as her momentum clashed with gravity and she swung her feet onto a narrow ledge. Panting with exertion, the young woman sat there for a moment with her shoulders heaving and her head turned away from Gohan. Not daring to speak in fear of a repeat performance, Gohan floated stock still until finally her head began to slowly turn towards him.

Sapphire irises stared at him with a mixture of fear, surprise, and anger. "S-stay away from me!" She yelled at him, "dirty android!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Gohan threw his hands up in defense, "hold on a minute! I'm not an android!"

"Oh yeah?" The young woman countered, struggling to maintain her footing, "then how come you can fly?"

"Uh…" Hm, she had him there. 

"Those monsters always fly around, and I don't see anyone else zooming about, so you've got to be an android." Her fierce blue eyes, despite the sheen of fear, reflected at him a burning intensity, daring him to argue with her logic. 

"Look," he said, "I'm not an android."

"Prove it."

Gohan would have chuckled had exasperation not tempered his reasoning; this girl had some nerve! "I haven't killed you yet, have I?"

"No, but that doesn't mean anything."

"Of course it does," he replied, "it means I'm not an android." Gohan pressed a hand to his chest and gave a reassuring smile, "I'm Gohan. I'm sorry I scared you just now, but I was in the area and I saw you on the cliff. Thought you could use some help."

"Well you thought wrong," she retorted, "I'm fine, I can take care of myself."

Gohan frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm sure you're very capable of handling things; but seeing as you're four hundred feet from the bottom of this cliff, and another five from the top—"

"Listen, pal," the girl ground out, "I appreciate the offer, but I'm not going to allow some _stranger_ who happens to be able to _fly_ like an android get any closer to me than necessary. Its not that I don't believe you when you say you're not out to get me—it's just that I don't believe you. And besides, I can do this."

If she had one thing going for her, at least, it was one of the stubborn and determined wills he had ever come across since the androids had beaten down the collective spirit of the human race. Gohan could think of only two people to rival it, and with Bulma and his mother in mind, the demi-Saiyan knew just how to handle the situation.

"Fine," he said.

The girl pulled her head over her shoulder to look at him, blinking owlishly, "fine?"

Gohan nodded, "fine. If you don't want my help, that's all right. But if it's the same to you, I'll stay here until you're on solid ground, just in case you might need me."

She leveled a glare at him, "why don't you just go away?"

"Unless you can come over here to shoo me away, I think I'll stick around a bit."

"Do you think if I could do that, I'd be stuck on this cliff?"

Gohan just smiled at the girl. She huffed and turned back to rock scaling, "jerk."

Time slowly ticked by, and although Gohan didn't have a watch to precisely measure it, he knew that not more than a half an hour could have passed. He had to admire the girl, though she hadn't moved far from the spot he had found her at, it certainly wasn't due to a lack of effort. She would descend a few feet, find no purchase, and be forced to climb back upward and try a new path. Every now and then she would discover that she'd gone more sideways then down, giving her no choice but to look up and try for a higher ledge to ascend and start her decent over. But Gohan could see that it would be much too difficult a climb to go up without any gear, and the girl was beginning to tire. It wouldn't be too much longer before she'd be willing to at least listen to his offer of assistance, and Gohan knew just what to lend. If she could ride it, good for her, but if she couldn't, then at least Gohan would be able to catch her and bring her somewhere safe.

Sweat dripped steadily from her temple as the young woman struggled to regulate her breathing. She'd slipped multiple times trying for footholds in every direction available to her, but to no avail. Soon she knew she would be too tired to even keep a hold of the cliff face, and without looking, she knew it yet to be a long way down. 

There came a quiet cough behind her.

"Why are you still here?" She spat at him.

"You know," Gohan started, "I could give you something that'd be helpful."

"Your absence?"

"Not quite."

"Then unless it's a rope or a parachute, forget it."

"No, no," he replied, "this is better than a rope, much better than a parachute."

Tired and nearly ready to throw in the towel, the young woman sighed and asked what helpful little tool did the man have that might help her.

"Hold on, I'll call it." 

"What?" Call it? Her head snapped up. She knew it! He was an android, and he was calling his sick partner to come and kill her off! Well, to hell with that. If she was going to go, she'd go down fighting! However, having no real way to defend herself, she had only one way to thwart the schemer's plan. 

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and fell. 

The wind whistled through the young woman's ears like a screaming siren. Vaguely she thought she heard the man yell something at her, he was already too far away to make out. Her loose T-shirt flapped around her as her arms spread out like flightless wings in small hope of balancing her body. Tears streamed from her ducts as she struggled to open her eyes, wanting to watch the ground rush at her, faster and faster until—

She bounced. It was a light rebound, as if she'd fallen on a fluffy down pillow. Odd. The ground wasn't supposed to be this soft. In fact, she thought as she slowly opened her eyes, if she didn't know any better, she thought she'd fallen on a—

The girl gasped, a cloud!

Gohan took a deep breath and let it out slow and easy, trying to calm his frayed nerves. What in the world had possessed that crazed girl to let go of the ledge like that? Sending a silent thank you to wherever Kami might be at the moment for letting the Nimbus be close by, Gohan descended down through the air until he was just off the ground, eye level with the Nimbus and the suicidal girl. 

The suicidal girl who was currently one hundred percent occupied with the Nimbus cloud. Curiosity seemed to consume the young woman as she moved about the small space of the cloud, grabbing handfuls and watching the substance pull apart like cotton; putting her hand deep into its middle, then pulling out her arm again and bouncing up and down. 

Gohan was perplexed, "what are you doing?"

The girl looked up, only slightly surprised to see him. "Is this a cloud?"

"Sort of, yes."

"If it's a cloud, why don't I fall through?"

Gohan sighed, "Nimbus is a 'magic' cloud, if you will. If it likes you, it'll take you anywhere you want to go. Consider yourself lucky; there aren't a lot of people who don't just fall through. And if you had, you'd be a pancake right about now."

"You can summon a cloud?" Something flashed in the girl's eyes, "is this what you said you were to give me?"

"Of course," he replied, "what else would I have?"

The girl's cheeks took on a faint pinkish tinge, though she tried to hide it by a smart retort. "Well certainly not a cloud! Honestly, why would anyone have a _cloud_—"

Gohan squinted at the girl, "You thought I was going to call an android, didn't you."

The pinkish tinge turned into a small blush, "_no!_"

He chuckled, "I guess that's why you jumped off the ledge, then."

The small blush turned into a brilliant flame of scarlet that swept across her cheeks. She glared at him, "well how was I supposed to know!"

"I did tell you."

"Told me what?!" She yelled, "that you were going to call a magic yellow cloud?"

"That I wasn't an android." Gohan responded evenly. 

"Oh."

They looked at each other for a moment, neither saying a word. Then a fresh breeze stirred, and Gohan began to take notice of the cooling air and descending sun. Knowing that androids weren't the biggest danger after nightfall, Gohan decided it was time to make peace with the spitfire in front of him and send the girl off somewhere to safety. 

"Look," he started, "we didn't exactly start off on the right foot, so let's start over." Gohan let his feet fall to the ground, relieved that the Nimbus cloud followed him to hover at his waist level. Giving a courteous bow to its rider, he reintroduced himself. "Hello there, my name is Son Gohan. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss--"

Bright blue eyes regarded him as the girl debated over answering his question. Finally, her back to the descending sun, the young woman lifted her chin and set her head in a position of undefeated pride. With the wind pulling loose strands of her dark hair and playing them about face, she nodded to him. 

"Videl," she greeted him, "Satan Videl."

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* 

Well, it's a start. ^.^;; Now, to those wonderful people who acknowledged my existence:

Poppy & Dragon Empress: Thanks bunches for the encouragement, here is the more to give you a better idea, just a tidbit though, much _much_ more to come. 

ChibiChibi: I think he's twenty. Trunks is ten, and as far as I know, Gohan is ten years older than Trunks. Reasoning is that in the anime/manga(?) he was eleven when he defeated Cell and Trunks was or was nearly a full year of age. 

If someone would like to correct me on this, feel free to, but it will change the story very little. There's a very delicate time scale that's going to develop in this story, though really its touch and go, as there's not much information out on the Mirai Trunks timeline. 

Also, if anyone else would like to be notified of new chapter uploads, use a signed review or leave your address. I'll be happy to oblige, though a service charge will be rendered in the form of one review.

^.^;;


	4. Chapter 4 The Promises of Late

Right.  One year later….

Disclaimer: Roany, Roany, my good pony!  Don't you dare say I do owny!

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Beyond the Cloudy Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed  
  


Chapter 4

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Videl, being of a sturdy nature and a strong warrior background, was no stranger to challenges, welcoming them even with a dangerous glint and a cocky smile as she beckoned them closer with a crooked finger.  The only child in a single parent family, she and her father had worked tooth and nail for every crust of bread and every drop of water that had passed down their throats since before she could remember.  And Videl, being of such stout mind and body, could remember quite a bit.  

Her memories began in a rundown one-bedroom shack that doubled as a dojo during the day.  Videl's first bed was a mothball-smelling sleeping bag beneath a hole in the ceiling that she jokingly referred to as her skylight; and her clothes were so large but so definitely feminine that she wondered if they had not at one point belonged to the mysterious and shadowy figure of her past known as Mom.  Her father, an up and coming martial artist by the name of Satan Hercule, taught a few classes during the sunlit hours before working the night shift as a security guard at a factory down the road.  The money wasn't much, but it did pay for two adequate meals a day and the entry fees to weekend tournaments that her father had started to win regularly.  Soon the local tourneys gave way to regional contests, and from there it hadn't been long until odds had been drawn for rising star, Mr. Satan, at the World's Martial Arts Tournament.

But despite his slow rise to fame, Mr. Satan was first and foremost a father to his only child, and for that he earned undying love and devotion from his daughter.  The pride that he felt for her rivaled nothing, and he boasted about her at every turn and tournament.  There were few reporters who had interviewed Mr. Satan that hadn't been treated to the story of Videl's first steps into her daddy's arms at the tender age of six months, or her first attempts at katas that had sent her tumbling to the floor time after time.  When they had moved into a new home on a nicer side of town than the gang ruled slum of her youth, pictures began lining the walls to accompany his stories.  Her first steps, her first colored belt, their father/daughter successes—later to become known as the Satan Sweep when he would win the adult division and she would walk away with the youth title—every moment of triumph and tribulation became a moment on the wall.  

Every moment, but any that involved another parent.  Mr. Satan may have loved his daughter, but the feelings and events associated with his former wife were as unknown to Videl as truth to the existence of living planets beyond her own.  Videl might have been found in a cabbage patch for all that she knew about her mother, but she had come to accept the fact that a vegetable garden was probably preferable in her father's eyes.  Anything that reminded the Champ of his former wife had been removed from the Satan household, and questions about her from his daughter would always bring a closed, half sad, half angry look to Mr. Satan's face.  The expression was terrible and his personality afterward even worse, falling into a quiet and often drunken stupor for the remainder of the day.  So Videl had learned not to ask; and after so many years without a mother in her life it had ceased to matter.  She had her father, and that's all that did.

But now, she didn't even have that anymore.  

"So let me get this straight," the dark eyed man said to her, "you were on that cliff because your father put you there."

"No," she scowled at him, tearing off another bite the cold meat crepe he had given her, "he put me in a cave about thee quarters the way up.  But I've been in there for two weeks and I ran out of food—"

"So you thought you'd just climb down the cliff face and go foraging."  He shook his head again, handing her another crepe as he watched her stuff the remaining of her last into her mouth.  "Don't you think it a little _dangerous_ to be rock climbing without equipment?"

"I was handling it just fine before you came along," she replied smartly, accepting the last of the meat crepes.  After their little introduction, her "rescuer" had proceeded to offer her the strange dinner cakes as a further peace offering.  She'd been wary at first, but after the initial bite she hadn't cared if they were poisoned or not—after having no food in three days, Videl would be content to die in the Heaven the taste of the food had sent her to.  

"Why were you in that cave, anyway?"  Gohan asked in an attempt to deter yet another argument.  The girl certainly liked to pick them.

"I told you, because my father put me there."  Videl replied, her voice carefully articulated as if talking to a mental invalid.

"Is he still up in the cave then?"  Gohan pressed, wanting to have a word with the man who would let his child try to scale a thousand foot cliff face.

But Videl shook her head, causing Gohan to sigh.

"There wouldn't be anyone else up there with you then, like a village?"

"Don't be stupid, its hardly big enough for two as it is," Videl replied.  "Why a village, though?"

"I'm looking for one, or at least, its people," Gohan said, "there used to be a village not too far from here…you wouldn't happen to be from it, would you?"

"No," Videl licked the last of the meat juice off her fingers, "but I know about it.  Dad went off to help them not long after we found the cave."

"Oh."  Gohan became troubled, "how long ago was this?"

"'Bout a week ago."

Gohan frowned, that would put Videl's father in the mountains at the same time of the androids, but he hadn't seen any bodies.  A week wasn't enough time for a corpse to decompose, not even enough for scavengers to lose interest.  Something fishy was going on, but Gohan didn't have enough information to figure out just what.  Well, first things first, he needed to drop his little adventurer off somewhere safer than the middle of nowhere.  

"Something wrong?"  The girl's voice cut through Gohan's thoughts, and he looked up to see her eyeing him suspiciously.

To ease her mind, he smiled at her; unconsciously slipping into the infamous trademark expression of his family.  "No," he told her, "just thinking.  But it's getting late and it wouldn't be right to just leave you out here by yourself.  Is there anyplace I can drop you?"

"That offer isn't literal, I hope," Videl replied, still lacking any sort of trust.

"What? No, no!"  Gohan held up his hands defensively, "I'm just trying to help!  Really!"

"Hmph," Videl dusted off her cut-off jeans before asking, "can you take me to the village?  I'd like to see my Dad again and maybe get some supplies."

"Uh," Gohan hesitated, "I'd like to but…"

"But what?"  Videl glared at him, "don't tell me it's too far for that silly cloud of yours."

"No," he said, "Its just that…well, I can't _find_ the village."

"Well I know where it is."

"So do I."

"Then what's the problem?"  The scowl on the young woman's face was becoming perpetual, "take me to the village!"

"I can't!"  Gohan tried hard to recap his patience.  He took a deep breath and let the news out slowly, "the village… isn't there anymore."

It took a moment for the underlying meaning of his words to sink in.  As it did, the thickness of the silence that hung in the air was enough to stopper the wind and let the dryness of the cliff base permeate Videl's mouth.  Her eyes blinked in slow motion once or twice as she tried to focus on something, anything.

Gohan at once felt bad and tried to remedy the situation.  "Hey," he said, somewhat gentle, "don't think of it like that.  The village isn't there anymore, but neither is anything else.  It looks like whoever lived there took it down themselves and went into hiding.  Wherever they are, I'm sure your dad is safe with them."

"Yeah," Videl swallowed, trying to get her mouth to work again, "yeah.  That' s probably it.  Dad's clever like that, he probably got them to do it."

"Probably," Gohan avoided the matter of the vegetation being older than a mere few weeks; the girl could think what she wanted if it cheered her up for a bit.  "So is there anywhere else I can take you?  Other family?  I know a couple people in West City—"

"Can you take me back up to the cave?" She asked, "Dad told me to wait for him there.  He won't know where else to look when he comes back and I'm not there."

"But, you don't have any supplies—"

"Look," Videl turned on him, her glare in such a force that Gohan was forced to take a step back.  "Either you let me borrow that cloud of yours or I start climbing myself, got it?"

"Ah, yes, ma'am," Gohan gave in, knowing better than to mess with a female with her mind made up.  

From its perch a few feet away, the Nimbus cloud puttered over and bumped gently against Videl's hip, declaring itself ready for transport.  Without a word, Videl hopped on and settled deep in its middle.  She looked back to Gohan, "you're sure its not gonna drop me, right?"

Gohan smiled, "just think happy thoughts."  And with that, he rose slowly in the air, beckoning Nimbus to follow after him at a sedate pace.  

The ground fell away quickly despite Gohan's efforts to keep things slow.  Keeping on eye on the girl while looking for the mysterious cave she claimed origin, Gohan noted the passive—if not curious—look that touched her face even while her hands gripped the Nimbus with white knuckles.  

After a few minutes of rising, falling, and chin jerking, Gohan spotted a shadowed opening in the cliff face, hidden in an indenture behind two rocks and tucked safely in the folds of an adjoining cliff.  There was no way anybody was finding this place unless they already knew about it.  

The two rocks that hid the entrance also served as a sturdy ledge, allowing Videl to climb without problem from the Nimbus.  Secure in her footing, she looked up to her hovering companion.  

"I'd ask you to come in," she told him, "but I think that'd sound stupid."

"Its all right," he told her, but continued to hesitate over the entrance, "you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," she huffed, "I was before you came and I will be now that you're leaving.  Good bye."

And with that definite ring of dismissal in her voice, she disappeared into the shadowy depths of the cave to leave Gohan alone and very much confused.

*^*^*^*^*^*

It was well into the morning but long before sunrise when Gohan's fingers deftly slid the window to his bedroom door shut, shucked off his _gi_ and heavy undershirt, and then collapsed onto his bed. Tired from a day's hard flying and the roller coaster of stress that dealing with the young woman had put him through, Gohan came home out of pure habit; one established long ago in his early days of training where after long days under Piccolo and his father's tutelage, he would wake up every morning in his room with only the vaguest of ideas how he came to be there.  

Habit, the most damnable blessing ever that could be.  Mechanical actions that the body went through that were created in the company of old and would continue long after the old became the dust of memory.  

But tonight would be different.  Tonight's actions of habit would not induce nightmares of better days; instead Gohan's thoughts would be occupied by new images.  More specifically, those of a dark-haired demoness performing daring aerial acrobatics under the attentive net of the Nimbus cloud.  

Honestly, what had that girl been thinking?  Climbing down a cliff like that was dangerous!  She could have been vulture food if he hadn't come along when he did.  Still, it took a great deal of strength and determination to get in the pickle she'd brined herself in; he'd give her that.  

But what puzzled him was why she'd want to return to the cave.  She said her father would be waiting for her; but Gohan knew that even if her father weren't dead, it would certainly be a long time coming in his return.  He wondered if that girl knew that as well, and the reason she had descended from her hideout in the first place.  She'd starve up there soon enough, or try her fool stunt again.  Either way, she was in a good situation to get killed.  And being that he hadn't left her the Nimbus, Gohan couldn't have that; he'd feel tremendously guilty if he were to fly by again, only to see the dusty remains of hair and bones lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the cliff face.

Right.  So seeing that he was obviously the only one who knew about the lone woman hiding in the Cliffs, it was even more so apparent that it was up to Gohan to relocate her somewhere safer, or at least help her out until her father could return.  

Gohan the Selfless strikes again.

And with that, morning came quickly; so fast in fact that Gohan had to wonder where the night had gone.  He could have sworn that just a moment ago he had been trying to find possible solutions to the conundrum of the missing village and stubborn attitude of the Cliffside girl, but now daylight peaked through his window and teased his sleep filled eyes into opening further.  He yawned hugely and stretched, his hands brushing the headboard and his feet further messing the blankets he was tangled in and under.  

Rolling out of bed, Gohan reached to find his discarded clothes, only to discover that they were absent form his tidy floor and that a neatly folded pair of shirts waited for him atop his dresser.  The demi-saiyan quirked his lips slightly at his mother's antics and proceeded to oblige her hard work by grabbing the shirts and heading downstairs to breakfast.

The smell of toast and eggs permeated the air as he descended into the kitchen, a small mountain of assorted breakfast food towered precariously on his plate, waiting to be ignored by his non-existent appetite.  Though this typical morning scene was punctuated by his usual refusal, Gohan surprised both himself and Chi Chi when he passed by his plate but grabbed a few pieces of toast; popping them into his mouth as he made his way to the fridge for some ice.  

"Well good morning to you too, son," Chi Chi responded to Gohan's full mouth and wave of hello with pleasant surprise.  "I take it yesterday was good?"

"Awful, actually," Gohan swallowed the toast, "didn't find the village anywhere.  Gonna try again today after breakfast."

"And yet you seem happy about this," Chi Chi said, then swatted Gohan's hand, "don't you dare drink out of the bottle again, Mister!"

Gohan managed a sheepish grin and he took the juice bottle to the table and sat down.  "Sorry, Mom."

Chi Chi snorted, "If you were really sorry, you wouldn't do it every morning.  Now then, will you be needing anything today?"

"Actually," Gohan braced himself for the inevitable reaction, "I was wondering if you could pack me a lunch?"

"A lunch?"  The question threw Chi Chi off balance; it was a request she had not heard from him in months if not years.  She fumbled the spoon in her hand, but caught it and clutched it to her as she turned to stare at her son like she had not seen him before.  "A lunch?"  She repeated, a little slower this time, "you'd like some more meat crepes?"

"No," he replied, "I mean a real lunch, like what you packed Trunks yesterday."

"Oh," she said, finally understanding.  "The Briefs need more food," she turned back to the counter and pulled over a basket, "why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Mom, no!"  Gohan said again.  He stood up and hurried over to the counter to lean over it and peer at his mother directly with his open, earnest face.  "I meant for me."

"For you?"  Chi Chi's face furrowed, "but you never eat at midday anymore."

"I know, but I'd like to today."  He continued to stare up at her with his wide, honest face; willing the lie beneath his earnesty to smooth away the lines of age and sadness.  

He half got his wish.  The sadness was swept away by suspicion as Chi Chi looked at him sideways.  "You won't eat breakfast, but you want a lunch."

"I'm not hungry right now."

"But you will be later?"

"Mom!  Please?"  Gohan begged, doing his best to resemble a pleading Icarus.  

"Well, I, uh, well...yes…yes, of course!"  Chi Chi finally snapped out, her body managing to shake off the halting effects induced only by the familiarity of strangeness being flung violently away by the sudden and unexpected return of the once repetitive.  She flew into action; grabbing food, making food, preparing it, all while scolding her only son.  "Honestly Gohan, asking if you can have lunch.  Do you think I would starve you?  You're too skinny as it is!  And eating breakfast wouldn't hurt you at all…."

His mother worked up her rant as Gohan carefully tuned it out, listening only enough to know when to agree out loud and make promises he could never keep.  But he smiled as he watched his mother zip about the kitchen just as she did when he was seven and trying to stay out of her way while Dad laughed from his chair—

"And there!"  Chi Chi's happy exclamation slapped Gohan back to the kitchen as Chi Chi handed him a laden pack that was still warm on the bottom.  "That should keep even your stomach satisfied for a few hours.  And here's another one for Trunks—" she hefted him another pack only slightly smaller than his own— "since you're going that direction anyhow."   Chi Chi paused for a moment, "maybe I should give you one for Dad, too."

That, in Gohan's mind, was pushing it.  The Ox King was nowhere near the mountains he was heading to.  In fact, a person would be hard pressed to find anything the Ox King's domain could be considered "near."

"Uh, I gotta go, Mom."  Gohan managed to get out between the older woman's musings.

"What?  Oh, fine."  Chi Chi conceded.  "But will you be back for dinner?"

The hopeful look in her eye almost made Gohan say yes.  But the toast that already sat like lead in his stomach and the long flights between destinations forced his head sideways.  "Breakfast, tomorrow, Mom.  I promise."

"All right, then."  Chi Chi smiled and waved her son out the door.  Wondering if he'd last, "until tomorrow, Gohan."

*^*^*^*^*^*^*

"Nothing, you say?"  Bulma frowned as she tightened a screw in her line of sight, "are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Gohan sighed in response, leaning against the worktable he had found Bulma by once more. By the looks of it, she'd been in there a while. He'd arrived at the ruins of the Capsule Corporation as he usually did, but had only been greeted by Trunks.  At least this time, however, Trunks's cough was absent and the flush to his face much healthier looking, even though it was covered in smudges and his clothes more tattered than usual.  By the looks of it, he'd been avoiding his mom; and by the warning glint in his eye, it was best left unsaid that Gohan would be better off leaving her alone as well.  Important information to relay however, letting Bulma be was an impossibility.   The events at the Eastern Mountains needed to be discussed.  "I was up and down every foot of those rocks, and all I found was a pole and a rusted chain."

"Really," Bulma said shortly and frowned deeper as she tightened to the screw to the point where the wood began to crack, "I haven't heard anything about anyone trying to hide or relocate cities, and I'd like to think of myself as well-informed."

Well-informed would be a way of putting it.  Since the slow decimation of the human race had begun, Bulma had strived day and night to keep Capsule Corporations up and running, as well as provide numerous safe havens for homeless victims.  In exchange for her philanthropy and dino caps, Bulma found that information came in at a steady trickle from important leaders and organizations that still managed to operate.  It was possible that Bulma was one of the most "well-informed" people on the planet; and by default, Gohan, who used what he could from Bulma to eck out an existence in the continuing misery of their world.  

"I don't think it's a wide-spread effort," Gohan eyed the protesting wood, "probably just a mountain thing."

"Hm, maybe," Bulma replied, setting down her screwdriver to stare at Gohan in an accusing way, "so what will you do now?  Stay around for a few days?  Trunks has missed you."

"Uh…" Gohan realized he was suddenly treading on thin ice, though he couldn't think of what for. "I think I'll go back and try again."  He replied, picking up a trinket on Bulma's workbench and fiddling with it, trying to will away his second mom's accusing eyes.  

"That's a lot of flying to do in just a few days," Bulma told him, "a little risky for a village that's obviously either safe or dead, don't you think?"

"Everything I do has risk."

"Most of it needless."

"Look, is there a point to this interrogation, or do I get to guess?"  Gohan finally snapped, slamming down the gadget in his hand.  Small splinters flew into the air to create an ark before raining down onto the table.  Bulma's instruments rattled.

"Be careful, would you?"  Bulma stormed, pushing him away from the table and frantically checking the bench.  "And this isn't an interrogation!"

"Well it certainly feels like it," he stated, cross.

"That's because you're edgy and looking for a fight."  Bulma snipped, picking up the more delicate of her toys and storing them away.  

"_I'm_ edgy?"  He asked, incredulous.  "_I'm_ looking for a fight?"

"Don't be stupid.  You're a Saiyan; you're all looking to fight!"

"All—" Gohan's eyes widened as the truth suddenly dawned on him.  "How'd you find out?"

"Subtlety is a trait none of you seem to possess," Bulma ground out, unconsciously picking up the screwdriver again and gripping it hard.  "Trunks was practicing his speed in the field behind the garage.  How could you, Gohan, after I specifically asked you not to teach him!"

"Trunks was already figuring it out, Bulma," Gohan said with tried patience.  "All I did was finish—"

"Finish?  This is in no way finished!"  Bulma screeched, "First flight, then what's next?  Sparring?  Fighting?  Leading him to war against the Androids?  Go off and die together so I can find your bodies half buried in some rubble of a building like his father's?"

"Bulma…"  Gohan was caught off guard by Bulma even indirectly mentioning Vegeta; it took the wind from his sails completely and left him in the Horse Latitudes.

"Don't start," Bulma cut him off, her back firmly turned from his astonishment.  "If you're going to go, then go.  I can't stop you, I couldn't stop any of you.  So there's no point in trying now."

"Bulma, I'm—"

"Didn't I just say leave?"  Bulma whipped about so fast the tears were flung from her eyes to splatter against his _gi_ and across his face.  "_Go!_"

He went.  His head bowed, Gohan quietly made for the exit and shut the door as soft as he could manage.  Standing in the mid morning light, the demi-human sighed and brushed imaginary dust from his legs and lower shirt.  Until the tears dried, he'd not touch his neckline. 

"Sorry 'bout that, Gohan."  

Gohan looked up to see Trunks tucked in the shadows of one of the buildings on the grounds; picnic basket to his left and broken window to Bulma's shop where he'd just escaped on his right.  

Gohan gave the younger boy a quirky smile.  "It's okay, Trunks.  She'd have found out eventually."

"She shouldn't have yelled at you, though.  I'm the one she told not to do any of that stuff to."

"And I'm the one she made promise not to teach you any of 'that stuff.'"  Gohan let his smile broaden as he crouched down next to Trunks and ruffled the young boy's hair.  "But I did.  We'll just have to lay low for a while, right?  No more lessons for a few days, and keep your feet on the ground."

"Yeah, okay."  Trunks nodded glumly as he glanced at the window before looking back to his mentor.  "So you going back to the Eastern Mountains, then?"

Gohan nodded, "one more time, at least."

"I'll tell Mom then, when she settles down a bit."

"Thanks Trunks, though I doubt that's news she'll be happy to hear."  
"She wasn't happy when she heard about you teaching me to fly, either, but she got over it."

Gohan winced, "that's over it?"

Trunks shrugged, stuffing a chicken leg into his mouth at the same time.  "You're still alive, right?"

"Barely."  Gohan pretended to check his vitals before chuckling a bit and standing up.  "Well, I'm off."

"Gohan," Trunks interrupted his good-bye.  "One last thing.  When Mom said that stuff about… forbidding me and stopping Dad—"

"Later," Gohan promised, rising into sky.  "Ask me that after I get back."

"Okay," Trunks nodded, knowing better to press the issue.  "Good bye then, Gohan!"  He called out, waving to the sky and the shrinking dot that was Gohan.  "Don't forget to come back and play sometime!"

Gohan might have waved, but he was too far gone to tell, but Trunks kept waving anyway until the last vapors of his mentor's energy disintegrated.

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Review?  Criticize?  Flame?  Direction of a spoon?


	5. Chapter 5 Biting the Hand that Feeds

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Dragonball Z, its characters or whatnots. As I respect and acknowledge the ownership of a piece of text (i.e. DBZ), so do I ask my audience in respecting and acknowledging my own work. (_Don't steal other author's work!!_) If you like the idea presented in the previous and following chapters, or hate it, I challenge and even encourage you to try your hand at a piece of fiction, but make sure its your own.

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Beyond the Clouded Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 5

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Gohan sighed mightily as he once again shifted the heavy pack in his hands. Dangling several thousand feet in the air, it would certainly not due to drop the over-sized rucksack and all its contents onto the unsuspecting earth below. As much as he was sure the recipient would enjoy the ample bounty he was bringing her, Gohan didn't think pancakes were going to be so much the treat when the food was supposed to be chicken.

No one could be that hungry.

Then again, Gohan thought, Trunks was packing away those meals Chi Chi made for him with the speed and gusto of a half-starved pie-eating contestant. The thought made the demi-human chuckle; Bulma was going to have her hands full feeding Trunks until he finished his latest growth spurt. And though normally she would be helped by generous supplements courtesy the Gohan Shipping Service, Gohan thought it best to let the Briefs be for a few days until Bulma could cool off.

Though in retrospect, it was perhaps a good thing Bulma had lost her temper—she tended to be less observant that way. And more often than not she failed to notice the little things that would get Gohan in even more trouble than he was already in—such as the second rucksack of food Gohan had been toting today. Bulma knew Gohan well enough to know he wasn't about to eat it himself. Awkward questions would have most definitely ensued, and for some reason, Gohan found himself reluctant to talk about the girl from the cliffs. No real reason, no thoughts about it in his mind, simply…a lack of want.

From that thought, it was but a moment before the looming peaks of the Eastern Mountains came into view on the horizon. A patchwork of timber forests blanketed the valley and lower portions of the jutting land formations. Farther up the sun cast shadows off the rocks, lending false pretenses of cave entrances where none existed, while masking the true holes that led deep into the mountains and a large network of underground caverns where it was rumored dragons slept the world away.

Or so went the old rhyme. But those peaks had been pored through, mined, and inhabited long enough for accepted belief to say that no such network of caves could be real. To say nothing of the dragons.

_Too bad, though,_ Gohan thought, veering left towards the cliffs, _some well hidden caves would be just the edge I need to find that village._

Soon enough Gohan sailed over the edge of the Cliffs and angled downward in a steady dive. A little less than midway he pulled up and frowned at the rocky face. _Now where is that entrance,_ he hummed.

Deciding to cheat, Gohan spread out his senses and found it surprisingly easy to lock onto the girl from yesterday's _ki _and let that guide him to the jutting boulders and strange corner crack that hid the cave so well. With a satisfactory grunt, Gohan landed on the small natural platform just on the other side of the rocks and let the cumbersome food sack fall gently to the ground.

"Now for the hard part," he mused, gathering his courage to enter the cave.

The mouth was small and narrow, and Gohan fought the urge to turn sideways and duck as the entrance swallowed him whole and left him standing in the stomach of darkness. Instantly his hearing became that much more sensitive and his fighter's senses fanned out to search for other energy signatures. He found one, as he expected, but it was much weaker than he remembered, and distinctly out of focus. He wondered why—

"Hyaa!" The attack came from his left as the once fuzzy _ki_ snapped into sharp focus. A swift rounded kick to his chest as well as a hard elbow to his gut caught Gohan off guard. Grunting in surprise, he staggered back away from the onslaught only to trip over a goodly-sized rock hiding in the shadows on the cave floor.

"Oof!" He said on landing. The ground was hard and the wall even harder on his head as it snapped back to crack against the side of the cave. "Ow!"

"Serves you right!" Came the righteous voice he recognized from yesterday. He wondered if this type of mood was perpetual for the girl.

"Bastard! Scum!" Hard footsteps pounded toward him "Dirty Android!" The fists flew straight at him, but this time Gohan was oriented and had had quite enough.

The fist landed neatly in his palm, and he as gently as possible closed around the punch, holding the hand in a light, unbreakable grip.

"Hello again to you, too, Miss Videl." Gohan sounded out, his voice a mixture of strain and blatant amusement.

She gasped, "Gohan?" Her hand went limp in his own, causing him to release her as he eased back against the cave wall. "The very same," he smiled in the dark, trying to reassure her as he watched her silhouette back away in shock.

"How—how did you, what're you—you jerk!" Videl's stuttering surprise quickly turned to anger as her voice echoed in the dark. "What do you think you're doing! Sneaking in here like that! I could have seriously hurt you, you know!"

"Those punches were very skilled," Gohan admitted, neatly sidestepping the matter of Videl's deflected fist. "But I wasn't worried."

"And why was that?" Videl's temper continued on the rise, "I'm an accomplished martial artist, I'll have you know!"

"I noticed!" Gohan yelped as Videl menaced him with yet another handful of knuckles beneath his nose. He held up his hands as a gesture of peace in an effort to ward her off, "very accomplished!"

"Why then, Mr. Fly Boy," Videl continued, "being accomplished and very able to kick your butt, should I not pound you for coming into my home without an invitation?"

"Because I have a good reason to be here?" He ventured, trying to keep his voice below a squawk.

"Which would be?"

"I, uh, brought you some more food?"

"Really?" Videl's voice suddenly brightened, "oh, all right then."

Gohan watched in amazement as the menacing aura surrounding the young woman suddenly vanished in the dim cave. That her demeanor became distinctly lamblike after the lionish attitude she had shown just a moment before gave great insight as to the depths of her hunger.

A moment later and Gohan became aware of movement in the cave. He heard the shuffle of hesitant footsteps and the clang of glass on metal. Then there was a click and the demi-human had to shield his eyes as light sprung into the cave and attacked his eyes.

He squinted, then rubbed his closed eyelids, encouraging them to open and take his first look at the makeshift Satan residence.

It was an almost comfortable place, Gohan decided after his eyes adjusted. The total area livable in the cave was small, half the size of his own room at his mother's house. A traditional futon was rolled in the corner with western pillows and thick quilts piled on top. Next to it was a low bench doubling as a table and upon it was placed an old ceramic lamp, a few books and papers, trophies of various sizes, and a well-polished picture frame that beheld two people behind a cracked pane of glass.

Gohan glanced at the Capsule Corporation logo on the side of the camping stove and portable sink, "nice appliances," he said. "Those capsules are hard to come by these days."

"I didn't steal them, if that's what you're saying." She growled, hands clenching at her sides.

"No, no!" Gohan hastened, "I'm just saying—"

"I know they're rare," she retorted, calming a bit. "We bought them a long time ago, before…" The cave became too quiet in the wake of Videl's trailing voice, and Gohan wondered what she was thinking about before her voice picked up again. "Anyway, you said you brought food, right?"

"What?" Gohan confirmed, "oh yeah. Right outside, I'll go get it." Standing up, Gohan smiled in the dim light and headed towards the entrance.

"You left it outside?" She snorted, "You'll be lucky if the birds haven't gotten to it."

"It'll be fine," he assured her, hoping it was true.

Videl snorted again as she followed him out, pausing in her critique to ask, "any more crepes, by chance?"

"Maybe," Gohan replied, not bothering to muffle his smile, "though I'm not really sure."

"So you brought food, but you don't know what kind," Videl raised her eyebrow. "Some chef you are."

"Hey, I'm just the delivery boy," he replied, stepping outside to retrieve the satchel. "Mom made me a lunch, but I thought you could use it more."

As he hefted the sack over his shoulder, Videl's other eyebrow rose, putting the two in danger of colliding with her hairline. "That's a lunch? That could feed a family of three for a month!"

"Well," he grinned, "I'm a big eater!"

"More like a black hole if you're eating all that."

Gohan laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head, carrying the food inside as he did. Depositing the sack in the middle of the cave, he backed away from it as an invitation to Videl and her now audibly growling stomach.

"Dig in," he smiled, "all fresh this morning."

Videl needed no second bidding. Ravenous and having already worked off the meat crepes from the day before, she wouldn't have been able to keep herself from the promise of a full stomach even if she knew the meal was poisoned. But on the rationale that she had survived the meat crepes, and the chicken she had just pulled from the sack smelled even better than those, Videl had no choice but to trust the strange flying man and the food in his Santa Clause sack.

And so, for a time all in the cave remained silent as Gohan sat back against the rolled futon and watched Videl make her way through her first substantial meal in almost two weeks.

Very substantial.

"Good lord, another chicken?" Videl exclaimed, having already tackled half of its sack mate, "How many of these are there?"

"Probably not too many more," Gohan replied, hoping it was true. _Mom really outdid herself this time._

"You mean there _are_ more?" Videl couldn't believe her ears. Deciding to find out for herself, she promptly disappeared into the sack to search out the truth. Muffled counting followed her disappearance, and soon could be heard "—two, three, _four more chickens!_" Videl came out of the bag and produced the offending meat, displaying it before a not-so-shocked Gohan.

"Actually," Gohan surveyed the birds, "I think those two are turkeys."

Videl stared at him.

"Well see," he reasoned, "they're larger than the others and the skin is a different color—" he broke off when he noticed Videl still staring, "what?"

"You've missed the point, I think." Videl drawled, her voice a mixture of incredulity and irritation. "You said your mother packed you _lunch_! This—" Videl gesticulated wildly "—is the celebratory rations of a government victory army!'

Gohan took a moment to try and figure out what exactly it was that Videl had just said, but failed miserably in his attempt. "What did you say?"

"I don't know!" She exclaimed, "But what I do know," Videl gestured grandly with the turkeys in hand, "is that this is a hell of a lot of food for anyone's mom to make for a simple lunch!" Then her eyes narrowed, "unless it really wasn't made for just a lunch."

"Uh…I don't know what you mean?" Gohan was feeling another bit of nervousness flitting through his stomach as he shrank back from the investigative glow in the young woman's eyes. It reminded him of the many times Chi Chi had interrogated him as to the whereabouts of his Hiya Dragon.

"It means that maybe your mother packed all this food for some other reason than stuffing your gut," she replied. "You don't look like the type who knows his way around the kitchen. Probably your mother packed you extra so that when you went home, you'd have food in your fridge for a while." Videl looked inquiringly at her guest. "Well?"

"Actually," Gohan professed, "I live with my mom."

"Packed for an away trip?"

"She wants me back for breakfast tomorrow morning."

Videl's eye twitched, "a twenty something year old man has a curfew set by his mommy. Right."

Gohan felt a twinge of annoyance tweak his pride, "I seem to remember someone refusing to leave the cave because her daddy told her not to…"

"That's different!"

"How?" Gohan asked, not bothering to hide his exasperation.

"Because it is!" She told him, finality in her voice. "Now, if it wasn't because you live so far away, or that you are on a trip, and you have all this food that you just so _happened_ to have extra of; then there's only _one_ plausible explanation."

Gohan once again had to wonder where in the world the woman was going with her line of thought and why exactly she felt so vindictive towards the reasoning. The nervousness in his stomach rose again as a notion struck him. Videl still did not trust him, most likely she was trying to find some way to pin the android label on him, or even—oh no! What if she suspected something closer to the truth! If she guessed him an alien—she was panicked enough as it was over something created on Earth, there'd be no predicting her reaction if she found out the truth. His nerves frayed further and the first vestiges of panic set in as Videl opened her mouth to pronounce judgment on the intentions of his visit.

"You think I'm a charity case!"

The resulting conclusion of logic was enough to make Gohan topple sideways in a comical display of surprise. "_Huh?_"

"That's it, isn't it!" She glowered at him. "Poor Videl, stuck in a cave and too dumb to be able to find a way down and get her own food. Well I have news for you, mister: Satan Videl is no charity case!"

"But I didn't think that—"

"HA!" The girl guffawed, stuffing the birds back into the sack. "Likely story! And what else am I supposed to believe, Mr. Would-be-Hero?"

"But I'm not a—"

"You certainly aren't!" Videl was tying up the sack now and beginning to drag it towards the cave entrance. "Just because you gave me a little help yesterday and I told you a _little_ bit about me doesn't mean you can just waltz into my life and think to fix everything and take care of me!"

"Whoa, whoa! Miss Videl you're—"

"Exactly right!" She threw at him. Gohan stood bewildered in the middle of the cave while he watched Videl duck through the entry way and lug out the sack. "You got another thing coming if you think I'm some sappy damsel in distress, mister. I am Satan Videl, daughter of _the_ Satan Hercule, next Martial Arts World Champion; strongest man in the world!"

She was outside the cave now, standing tall with the sack over her shoulder. She threw it to the ground and began hauling the food out and throwing chickens and turkeys and pies and sandwiches over the side. "I am not a weakling that needs rescuing; I am not a little girl to be protected, I am not, am _not _a charity case! I am—" a shadow swept over the cliff cave entrance and a great squall filled the air. A medium sized pteradon, watching from higher atop the Cliffside, had seen and smelled the sudden appearance of food and unable to resist, came thundering down the rock face. At the last moment Gohan heard more than he saw the snap of flaring wings and the scrape of enamel on rock as the pteradon's claws grabbed the food, the sack, and Videl, all in one fell swoop.

Gohan heard Videl scream and then curse the bird roundly even as he ran out of the cave and jumped into the air after the flying dino. Zooming upwards he watched, bemused, as the girl attempted to turn in the pteradon's grip and kick the raptor's feet. But the flyer had thick protective skin, and even a strong human such as Videl was no match for the driving prospect of the first good meal the pteradon would be having in a very long time.

Sailing past the dinosaur, Gohan got a good look at the raptor and was amazed at her size. Not many dinos survived these days to grow as big as this one was; especially those unfortunate enough to have to spend time in the sky. He matched his speed to the pteradon's, flying close enough to see the pebbled skin and pins of primitive feathers around the eye. Close enough to see his reflection in her pupil, and her fear of him and what he might do. It was her meal! The eyes dilated and the raptor snapped her head back as her beak came around to peck at him. Gohan ducked away and gave her some distance. Really, it would be a shame to have to harm her just because she was trying to survive as much as he or Videl…

"Hey you, Fly Boy!" An angry yell pierced Gohan's speculations, "you gonna get this bird off me or just play tag with it?"

Gohan bit back the urge to roll his eyes and dipped his shoulder to come up by the pteradon's claws and an irate human. "You know, for someone claiming not to need any help, you sure do demand a lot."

"I didn't say help me!" Videl snapped, somehow managing to be heard over the whipping wind produced from the fast flying of the desperate predator. "I said get this thing offa me—urk!"

The pteradon, not comfortable with another flyer so close to her, turned in the air again to snap at Gohan, this time too much an obvious threat to her potential meal to ignore. Her strike was hard enough that her entire body spun to follow her mid-air peck, taking Videl for a stomach twisting spin. Gohan was forced to veer away once more, but he used to the chance to fly in front of the bird at such a fast pace that he disrupted the air current she was using to lift her gargantuan body into the air. The raptor's wings flailed for a moment as the creature struggled to maintain her balance in the unexpected gust of wind the demi-human created. Gohan thought that the distraction would be enough and moved fast again to fly back to her feet to where a now decidedly green faced Videl hung in the pteradon's grip.

Gohan grabbed the clutched foot and let the raptor pull him along as he used his other hand to grab Videl and begin pulling her out of the pteradon's grip. "Miss Videl, are you all right?"

"I'm—hey, watch out!"

The pteradon managed to catch herself long enough to realize her meal was getting away from her, and so with her free talons she tried to scrape away the unwanted parasite hanging onto her. Too preoccupied with loosing Videl and maintaining his balance in the slipstream of the bird's underbelly, Gohan didn't react fast enough to Videl's warning. A searing sensation swept down his back as eight-inch claws sliced his skin through his _gi._

Instinct forced Gohan to cry out in surprise and react to protect himself. Immediately his _ki_ dropped out and he fell towards the ground as his body got over a painful shock to his system.

_Stupid,_ he swore at himself. The demi-saiyan shook himself off and shot upwards back towards the raptor just in time to hear Videl give a frightened yelp. He had managed to pull her out of the pteradon's grip some, but that left her lower half in the raptor's curled feet and her torso hanging a good few hundred yards off the ground. Gohan noted that she'd had the good sense to wriggle only enough to find a way to brace her arms against her captor's legs, preventing her from slipping and falling to her death.

_Smart girl,_ he thought, _now lets see what I can do._

Focusing, Gohan pulled some _ki_ through his body and out of his hands, aiming unfocused blasts around the pteradon. Like the snaps firecrackers he had once played with as a kid, the blasts hit the wings with explosions that were small but smarted enough to make the giant flyer swing away. Gohan continued the barrage, but the bird's tenacity held out, and if anything, her grip became stronger. Videl testified for the bird's renewed energy to fight with angry screams and curses, not all aimed at the bird.

"Damnit, you ass! Watch where you're aiming! You're trying to kill me, I know it!"

But Gohan had no time to reply, his ki blasts had caused the pteradon to change her flight path and send her careening through a gauntlet of jagged mountain peaks that bordered the Eastern Range. A series of jagged spikes and outcroppings suspended thousands of feet up greeted the racers as the pteradon screamed and folded her wings to dive below a half collapsed natural arc. Gohan swore at the sudden raised level of danger and followed close behind the bird. Trying to fly close to the pteradon became a near impossibility as her flapping wings hit the mountainsides and caused a hail of small rocks to fly into him and bounce off his face and shoulders. The hunt was becoming dangerous, Gohan realized, and it needed to end. One particularly large piece of debris came at Gohan and forced him to fly against the mountainside, pushing gravel into his already scraped back. Gritting his teeth, he decided on his next course of action.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Videl yelled out as she watched the flying man stop short before shooting high in the sky. "You're leaving?"

Her question was answered when she watched a visible stream of energy—she thought it energy but she couldn't be quite sure, she'd never seen anything like it—swing in a gigantic arc around the bird before diving down into the mountain valley a ways ahead. Then, just as the pteradon went flying past, Gohan reemerged, and flying up like a rocket he slammed into the raptor's belly.

All motion stopped as the pteradon's thirty-foot body froze. Gohan had knocked the breath and ability out of the bird. The pteradon krie'd and her body gave a great shudder as her muscles were forced to relax in the motions of the unconscious state. The raptor's wings collapsed, her head fell and her claws opened—

Videl gave a yelp but possessed the good sense to grab hold of the curled talons that a moment ago had a firm grip on her. In his mind Gohan again reaffirmed his positive assessment of her intelligence as he reached over and grabbed her hand.

"Hold on," he said, his voice tight. He knew his grip on her hand was too hard; though she refused to scream her face was pinched and her mouth was drawn, but she was safe with him and he knew her type well enough to know that she'd never show a weakness to strangers. Turning his attention back to the dinosaur, he grunted and flexed his punching arm enough to send the pteradon arcing into the air. As it fell, he grabbed the creature's tail but let the momentum of the downward movement and the stiff breeze he was now able to notice carry them sideways and close to the mountains.

Teeth grit with determination and the sudden acute awareness of a pain that grew stronger with every beat of his heart, Gohan eased the pteradon against a ledge jutting out from a peak then flew a small ways beyond that to a large, secure boulder.

Videl gave an unlady-like grunt as he released her hand and let her fall three feet to solid ground. Then he let himself fall. Releasing his energy he tumbled to the girl's feet. His hearing was failing him as he thought he heard Videl mutter something that sounded like concern. His field of vision shrank and his world became only the immediate sight of her lower body, and then nothing.

_Wow,_ he thought, growing number and number. _She's got nice legs.  
_

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I dunno about how fun it was to read, but that last line was certainly a hoot to write. As always, tell me what you think. I love to hear from you! I'm desperate! I do parties! 


	6. Chapter 6 Family Matters

Another chapter in little over a month. Something must be wrong with me. Added to that: what was I doing while trying to write this? Studying materials to insure accuracy? Going over past drafts to fix grammatical errors? Reading Shikamaru/Ino fics instead of doing homework for actual real time classes? Would this author do such a thing? All too often, methinks.

I was so wanting to title this chapter, "Let's get ready to rummmble!" because Videl is just too much fun to write as standoffish. But I thought that might completely kill my effort to make this a somewhat serious fic and undermine the character development. Ah well.

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Beyond the Clouded Dawn

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 6

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Well this was a right mess she was in.

Videl stood on the edge of the huge boulder that jutted out from the mountainside, peering downwards at the long, long way down it was to the ground. Not only was it very far, it was very steep and unstable looking. The wind that blew perpetually so high up would lessen occasionally, and she would be able to hear the _crick, crackle crackle_ of rocks breaking away and bouncing a crash course down the slope. It soured Videl's attitude to know that if she hadn't managed to climb down the cliff where her cave was tucked away, it went without saying that this climb was probably out of her league yet. It also went without saying that the next time Daddy offered to pay for rock-climbing lessons, she would be taking him up on the offer.

Not that, Videl admitted, she would leave the spot she was at even if she could. There was still the issue of the pteradon that gave an occasional twitch and groan from its resting spot not three hundred yards from where she crouched; Videl didn't fancy becoming another item on the breakfast menu if the dinosaur awoke, was still hungry, and saw her clinging to the rock face.

"And then there's you, Mr. Fly Boy." Videl turned from the mountain drop to her unconscious rescuer. "Some hero you are."

He'd collapsed immediately after he'd unceremoniously dumped her on the boulder, and he had yet to awaken. Gohan—and she thought the boy's name strange, she guessed his family _really_ liked food—was a man of a strong build and unique abilities. She imagined the muscles and power it took to be able to take on and win against a desperate, full-grown adult pteradon. He must have worked very hard and trained equally so his entire life if he was able to carry out such a feat. And to fly! There was no way powering through the air like that had to do with just muscle alone. Videl was almost ready to acknowledge that her rescuer was not an android, but she'd never seen a human that could fly before except...except in those old tape videos she used to watch that featured a segment on alien invasions. Aliens, really. Just as Daddy said, they were nothing more than bad actors with even worse hair, thrown around on strings erased from view in the editing room. Certainly the media could think of something better than a warrior race from a planet named after vegetables coming to conquer Earth and sell it to the highest bidder. And the people who had come to "save" Earth had looked exactly like the "aliens!" Except for, and Videl wasn't really sure about this, that green looking guy with funny things sticking out from his forehead.

But that was beside the point. The man before her was certainly not green, and at the time the tapes were taken he would have been just a little kid, same as her. She hadn't even won her first Martial Arts tournament then, and Daddy was just beginning to get recognition. Impulsively, Videl wondered what Gohan had been doing...then, anytime, back then. Had he always been a fighter? Eating, sleeping, and breathing the dojo life? Maybe he had been a whiz at school, or a slacker, and martial arts was his hobby that was encouraged by his mom and dad when his studies were over. She wondered what his parents were like; he'd mentioned his mother a few times but never his father. Did he have a home life like hers? A one-parent household that might as well be asexual for all that the missing member was mentioned? Or maybe there was a personal tragedy, some horrific accident that would render the tough Fly Boy to tears if mentioned. Maybe his parents just had a divorce and were comfortable with each other but he lived with his mom. Maybe maybe maybe.

Videl crouched down beside his body, the balls of her feet taking the weight as her hands braced her chin, lending the appearance of a person in thought. She stared down at him and brooded, and wondered, and then decided it didn't matter. The past did not come forward to help the present; therefore it was the here and now and the tools that were available that dictated possible answers to current problems.

Therefore, problem: she was stuck in the middle of nowhere high atop a mountain she couldn't climb down from with an unconscious man she didn't know anything about except that he was her ticket home, next to a bird that had tried to eat her and could wake up at any minute.

Solution? Wake up the man and demand that he take her the hell home. Yes, Videl decided that idea was the most logical and practical answer to her current predicament, except for the issue that had sparked her long thoughts of speculation in the first place.

Fly Boy was hurt. Lying on his stomach, Videl had a clear view of his ripped clothing and shredded back. Two long gashes furrowed their away across his exposed torso, and a small, less vicious looking wound curled away from the other two like a curious whorl in a riverbed, trailing lightly away before disappearing under a flap of cloth at the small of his back. Videl had seen some horrific injuries in her life—both on the street from her early childhood living in the inner city and as a fighter in the high-level martial arts tournaments. As this wound went, it was ugly looking but not serious. She didn't see any bone fragments or gushing veins or arteries, so there was no reason for trauma to take his consciousness, especially for a body that otherwise looked perfectly fit. There was only one other conclusion that Videl could reach—Fly Boy had a weak constitution.

And if that was the case, then he'd get no pity from her! He'd dragged her into this mess, after all, with his own feelings of sympathy for her and that oversized foodbag!

Her stomach rumbled.

_God_. She muttered in her head, _why did I have to throw _all _that chicken away._ Maybe he'd get her more, if she was nice to him. Maybe the androids would spontaneously combust tomorrow.

"Hey! Wake up!" Videl grabbed the man's shoulder and began to shake him. "Come on! Nap time's over!"

"Mu—huh?" Gohan's eyelids contracted and squished together to form a pained frown. His hands flexed against the rough stone and his body gave a shudder as Gohan came back to the world, one sore inch at a time.

"About time," Videl muttered, leaning back to give him room to groan and writhe. "You've been out forever."

"Huh?" came the succinct answer. Videl watched as the Fly Boy used one arm to brace his upper body off the cool surface of the boulder, wincing as he did, before pushing his body over to rest on his back.

The reaction was immediate. "That...hurts." Gohan's voice came out quiet and strained and his face scrunched up with pain as sweat began beading on his temples.

"Well duh," Videl snorted, "you've only got big gashes on your back. Wasn't really smart of you to roll on them."

"Thanks for telling me now," came the response, followed by a long suffering sigh. Then, "how are you doing?"

"Uh? Fine, I guess." Videl was surprised that the man would even think to ask about her condition when his own seemed a much more pressing and attention getting. "How're you doing?"

"Stupidly for rolling over." Gohan replied, wincing as he attempted to sit up. Propping one hand against the ground, he reached back with tentative fingers to explore his wounds. "But it seems otherwise, well."

_He is well,_ what a statement. Videl wondered if he'd gotten that from long and painful lessons in manners or too many hours studying books.

"Give me a minute," he continued, "then I'll take you home."

A loud, throaty _krii_ passed through the air. Videl looked over to see that the pteradon was now more than just twitching with the idea of wakefulness. The ledge that Gohan had dropped her on was large and stable, allowing the dinosaur to totter and flap her wings in an effort to more fully realize wakefulness and balance. But that she was recovering faster than Gohan seemed to be made Videl distinctly nervous. One close encounter with a humungous, voraciously hungry dinosaur was enough, thank you very much.

"You think you can hurry that minute up a bit?"

"Why?" Gohan asked, scooting in a slow and painful looking manner to a rockside where he could rest while sitting up.

"You don't think that thing waking up is any reason to hurry?"

"No." Now Gohan had his eyes closed and was breathing deep and even breaths from his angle on the boulder.

"No."

"Yeah," Gohan cracked open one eye and looked at her. "No." The eye shut.

Videl wondered if he'd fallen asleep again. Fly Boy was treating this situation way too lightly.

"But what if it comes after us?"

"She won't."

"But how—"

This time, he didn't bother to open either of his eyes. "Just watch," he said.

"Jerk," she growled, "Exactly what am I supposed to 'just watch'?"

Another warbling cry from the waking pteradon caused Videl's fighter instincts to kick in and turn to face her opponent. It never did to take your eyes off the enemy, and Fly Boy was annoying but little else at this point. She watched as the raptor struggled to its feet, using the fingerlike digits on its wings to push itself up and stagger about. Feet beneath her, she gave a few experimental flaps before tucking her beak under her wing to preen and straighten unseen feathers. First her left wing, then her right. Finally, she straightened herself out and stretched, then her great big eye turned and looked across the divide to the boulder where Videl crouched, watching the creature in fearful fascination. The eye and Videl regarded each other for a moment before the black iris slipped away. The pteradon shook her head and spread her wings wide; she _krii_ed again to the skies and flapped hard before throwing herself into the air.

Somewhere in the not too far distance, another _krii_ answered. Then another, though smaller, higher pitched. Then again, one more like the second. Very quickly Videl saw another large pteradon flying through the skies accompanied by two very small miniatures of the adults. Videl gasped as the pteradon that had been causing such a ruckus for her and Gohan cried out a greeting to the newcomers and angled her wings to join them. In an instant Videl knew that the female was a mother and that her family had come looking for her. The four of them circled overhead for a few minutes as the babies flapped their wings and dived in and out of clouds. The mother and father flew a more sedate reunion as they twirled close together, wingtips reaching out like dancers' hands seeking the touch of their counterparts.

"How beautiful," she whispered.

"Of course it is." Not expecting a response, Videl started and turned towards the strong, familiar male voice that she was surprised to see belonged to a standing, walking Gohan.

"Well that was a quick recovery," she commented; her eyes carefully studying his features in the fading light. By the way he stood and moved he looked strangely healthy. The sweat and pinched look on his face were both gone, his eyes were sharp and observant, and as he walked towards her he showed no sign of the usual restraint people with back injuries exhibited. "How did you do that?"

"Magic," he grinned at her. Then his face sobered as he looked at the sky. "We'll give them a few minutes and then go. No sense in scaring them right now."

Videl turned back to the family, which had now broken away from its circle and the female, the larger of the two adults, began to fly higher and drift eastward as she rose on the last thermals of the evening. "That's why you didn't kill her, isn't it. You could have stopped her at any time," Videl didn't look at him as she talked, not wanting him to see the dawning of comprehension she was gaining about him and the situation. "But you knew she had a family."

"No," he shook his head. "I didn't know if she had a mate or chicks or anything. But I didn't _not_ know, either. Even then, killing her never occurred to me."

"But why not?" Videl retorted, "You've got all that weird strength and you shoot bombs from your hands! And you nearly got killed because you didn't want to hurt her. Don't you think it would've been easier to just take her out?"

Gohan didn't respond to her tirade immediately. His eyes continued to follow the path of the pteradons as if he was making a note of the direction of their nest, like a zoologist tracking a study subject. Finally, he sighed and scratched the side of his nose with a close cut nail and said, "I've never known a time where it was ever easy to take a life, Miss Videl. Deciding who should live and who should die isn't a question that should be answered by just anyone, if any one person at all." Gohan looked down at her with piercing black eyes. "I don't know what kind of family you've grown up with, but in mine we respect life. The 'easier to' mentality is what gets you the androids..." The sharpness in his eyes faded and he took his gaze away from her to stare at the mountains, though Videl wondered if he actually saw them, "among others."

Abashed at having her upbringing questioned, Videl worked up a snappy retort; but it died on her lips as Gohan turned around to further follow the now dot-sized pteradons in the distance. "Oh my God, your back!"

"What about my back?" Gohan twisted his head around to peer sideways down the length of his body. "Its not bleeding again, is it?"

"No!" Videl gasped, "It's not _anything!_"

Which was true, more or less. His back was smooth and unblemished even through the tears of his _gi,_ which did nothing to hide the muscled length of his torso or the slightly too prominent ribs for someone of his size and obvious activity level. The ends of the ripped shirt had crusted bits of blood, but that was the only evidence of what have should have been at least freshly scarred, marked flesh.

Despite the physical evidence, Videl was unwilling to believe what she saw and stalked up to him to poke him in the spot where the largest of the claw marks had furled over his spine. When he didn't gasp in pain or otherwise react, she became bewildered. "You were _hurt_ just a second ago, what did you do?"

"Do?" Gohan looked confused, "I didn't do anything."

"But that's impossible," Videl sputtered, "you can't, you can't—" the sentence died on her fumbling tongue as the young woman looked at the amusement dancing about Gohan's face. By the look of his expression, he'd obviously done _something _even if he didn't get what Videl was trying to get at There was no way he couldn't have an idea.

Videl glared at him and looked again. Nope, no scars, no pink freshly healed flesh. Nothing! "—You—"

"You can't just accept what you see?" Gohan asked, still very much amused by Videl's reaction.

"You can't just heal yourself like that!" Videl retorted. "It's not human!"

"Not android, either," Gohan countered. "Or do you still think that, too?"

Videl frowned, "I don't know what to think. Androids would have killed those birds, but, but humans just don't heal like that."

"Not any that you've seen, at least."

"Oh, and I suppose you've seen lots of people just jump right up after doing whatever you did—"Videl poked him hard in the back for emphasis—"to make that better."

"Yup."

Videl didn't like the way Fly Boy's grin threatened to cleave his face in half. "You annoy me."

The grin didn't falter an inch. Instead, his hand reached up to scratch the back of his head as Gohan chuckled a bit, "some things can't be helped, I guess. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," Videl's blue eyes became like flint in the now near darkness. "I am so ready to go."

--------------------

It was a long and troublesome flight back to the cave Videl called refuge. Not willing to approach with any length pole the wild and near rabid, angry animal known to the world as the Satan heiress, Gohan had again called upon the services of the Nimbus. Unfortunately, the cloud had also been somewhat reluctant to go near Videl in her then current state of anger, an emotion the generation of which Gohan knew was mostly his fault, though he wasn't sure why. Nonetheless, the very visible waves of energy and irritation that had flowed off the young woman had been enough to make the cloud shy away until fifteen minutes of coaxing and soothe-saying had passed. Gohan was simply thankful that Nimbus hadn't written them _both_ off for the tribulations he and Videl had put the poor airborne vehicle through in the past few days. But that Nimbus allowed Videl, despite her deep set anger and mistrust, to still hop aboard and not fall straight through was a testament to the truer nature that Gohan knew must lie somewhere deep inside the wily and wild, Satan Videl.

"You're not coming back again, are you?"

Somewhere deep, _deep_ inside.

"Miss Videl," Gohan said again, but perhaps for the last time as he saw her safely off the Nimbus cloud, "I would like nothing better than to let you lead your life peacefully and as isolated as you like, but you're by yourself several hundred feet from the nearest solid plane of earth, with no food and no idea of when your father will return. If I didn't come back it'd be a death sentence for you." He looked her directly in the eye, "do you really want to die that badly?"

Videl raised her chin and looked at him squarely, "I wouldn't die."

"But you wouldn't live, either," he gave her a pleading look. "Please allow me to escort you to a shelter—"

"No!" Videl's emphatic response was so strong it was almost violent, "I'm not a drifter or a needy, I can take care of myself! I don't need charity or hand-outs, got it? You're not taking me from here!" She rocked onto the balls of her feet and raised her hands into a defensive position, "I'll fight you first!"

"Whoa," Gohan eased, "I don't want to fight you."

"Then leave me alone, why don't you!"

Gohan fought the urge to rub his temples; he could feel a headache coming on. "Because you'll die!"

"No I won't," Videl asserted once more, "give me that and I'll be fine."

"Give you that..." Gohan followed where Videl was pointing, "the Nimbus?"

"Yeah, the cloud." Videl smiled at the fluffy bit of stratus that bounced against her hip. She patted it and continued with her reasoning, "we get along okay. I promise not to yell at it anymore. Nimbus can take me down and I can get supplies and you don't have to come back here everyday. So everyone's happy, right?"

Gohan looked at Videl very closely, "would you promise me, _promise me_ that you would only take Nimbus out for food and supplies?"

Videl didn't hesitate, "of course. Now, deal?"

"No."

"God damn it!" Videl snarled and Gohan wondered if he had imagined the extra long canines he thought he saw peaking out of her mouth. "Why the Hell not?"

"Because," Gohan really wanted to pinch his nose, the headache emerging from deep within his very tired brain was going to be a doozy. He wished he hadn't eaten that senzu bean with such a nutritionally depleted body. "I don't believe you'd keep your promise."

"I would, too—"

"Ah," he held up a finger to stop her short and took any trace of joking out of his demeanor. Holding her in judgment with his dark eyes, he commanded her integrity. "Tell me, Videl, honestly. If I gave you a means of freedom and a way to find your father, would you really leave only to find food?"

"I—" Videl looked him straight on, trying to match his gaze. Her heart beat three times; she dropped her eyes to the side. "No," she said quietly, her hands running over the soft cotton of the Nimbus cloud. "No, I'd stop at nothing to find Daddy, if I could, even if it meant crossing the androids."

"And that's why I can't leave you Nimbus," Gohan told her, his voice softening with her acquiescence to his point of view. "You're strong, Miss Videl, but no one can stop the androids. They kill everything and everyone and only because it amuses them. If they saw you flying around on Nimbus, your death wouldn't be quick, it would be painful. And none of that would help you find your dad. But if you stay _here_," and Gohan touched the cave entrance for emphasis, "I understand why you want to stay, so I won't force you to go. He'll know where to find you here. You can't go searching for him, so you just have to be patient and wait."

Her hands dug deep into Nimbus, "I know. He'll come, and I'll wait. But until then..."

"Until then," and here Gohan allowed himself a small smile, "you'll just have to put up with annoying me for a couple of supplies. Sound fair?"

"No," Videl said, giving the Nimbus one last pet before pushing it away, "but it's what I have to work with; so we'll leave it at that."

"Good enough, I suppose." Gohan sighed and pushed off the ground, letting his much depleted reserves of energy carry him into the air a few feet. Nimbus coughed and puttered next to him, and Gohan gladly took the proffered invitation and hopped onto the ready cloud. "Take care, Miss Videl, I'm sure your father will return soon."

Videl humphed and turned her back to him, walking into the cave even as she offered her own goodbye. "Push off, Fly Boy. Leave the supplies at the door next time."

Thanks to God it was well into night and she was deep in the cave, otherwise there would have been Hell to pay if Videl had seen Gohan smack his hands together in deep prayer to the long departed Kami for patience, understanding, and the will _not_ to strangle the young woman in front of him. As it was, only the Nimbus cloud saw, and as far as Gohan knew, the poor puff agreed with him.

Or he could think that, he needed some sympathy at that moment.

Not that he was going to get any in the middle of nowhere in what he now realized was a _very_ cold night. The wind chill he'd be generating while flying home would be well below freezing; and in his newly ventilated short sleeved _gi_, the prospect of zipping home, even if it was to a warm bed and clean clothes, was just highly uncool.

Then there was the problem that he just didn't have the energy to get home. Even riding Nimbus through cold high altitudes wouldn't be enough to keep his eyes open. Gohan was in definite need of some restorative sleep—that senzu bean had _really_ been a bad idea.

Even as he acknowledged his poor judgement, the headache that had threatened him at the cave exploded into the forefront of his consciousness and sent a wave of dizziness like a shockwave through his entire body. His stomach cramped furiously as he felt the familiar emptiness of hunger creep through him, looking for any bit of sanity left that might drive him to actually rejuvenate the overtaxed and under-fueled system that was Gohan. He needed to eat.

Which meant he had to get home. Which also meant that he would have to wake his mother, because there was no way he could bang around in the kitchen without alerting her to his actions. And then she would wonder why he needed to eat so soon after asking for lunch, when he hadn't wanted more than one meal a day in many, many months. Then it might come out that he hadn't actually eaten the lunch she had made, and that would begin a whole new set of explanations, arguments, guilt trips, etc...

By Piccolo's pointy boots, when had his life become so complicated?

Maybe Bulma had calmed down by now.

Actually, and Gohan wondered if this thought hadn't created a small, shiny light bulb over his head, that was a good idea. Trunks always had food in his room, and if he didn't have enough the kitchen wasn't that far away. An added bonus, if Bulma wasn't in the soundproof lab or the garage, she was sleeping like a rock in her room on the other side of the house.

All points covered, Gohan decided that a visit to the Briefs would be a good idea and angled the Nimbus in the direction of West City. Course set and speed moderate, Gohan almost enjoyed the stiff wind in his face. Then his stomach rumbled.

"Gah," Gohan face-planted into Nimbus's soft stratus, unable to continue sitting up. Oh, this was going to be a long trip.

------------------------------   
Next Chapter: Back to the Briefs! Trunks gets a history lesson. Insight on Gohan's hunger strike.


	7. Chapter 7 There's No Place

Yay! New chapter. Its not exactly what I was planning it to be, but, meh. The chap's a bit heavy on the conversation, and not even the kind of dialogue I had originally planned when I sketched this scene out…. about a year and a half ago. My, time flies. But this just means that there will be another dialogue heavy chapter to come! More yay! College courses on proper story format be damned! Maybe this is why my GPA suffers so?

And I am also incompetent. I'm sorry for the formatting of the chapter. has yet again changed and its doing funny things. Sigh.

And on two other completely unrelated author notes: Yes, I know there are mistakes in the chapters, grammatically and otherwise. I edit my own stuff, so I miss a lot. But I try really really hard, honestly! Also: I've been listening to Matthew Ryan's "Little Drummer Boy" for the last hour and _The Return of the King_'s "Into the West" all week. It's starting to warp my brain just a tish.

Disclaimer: _Dragonball_ and all its associates are the trademarks of Akira Toriyama, who gives all his characters funny hairstyles.

* * *

Beyond the Clouded Dawn 

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 7

* * *

Trunks opened his eyes and listened to the sounds of the night. Instincts that he wasn't aware of dictated the necessity of light sleeping habits and a subconscious tracking of all normal day and nighttime noises. Living in a nightmare world of unwinnable war and apocalyptic conditions trained him to react quickly and in a way that didn't equate to victory, but survival. 

Crickets chirped. The Red Army owl hooted softly from a tree outside his window, taking note of something interesting in the moonlit world. Perhaps it was a mouse, or possibly a brave squirrel out for a night gathering of nuts. Maybe even an android stalking its next plaything. Trunks continued to listen.

A light thud pattered against his window frame, soft as a June Bug's sigh, but enough to alert the instincts of a would-be saiyan warrior. Trunks knew immediately that a similar thud had woken him up. The bump in the night came again and he tensed, his ten-year-old mind trying hard to work out a possible battle plan. Whoever it was, was bound and determined to come through the window and as quietly as possible. Stealth would cost the intruder time and concentration, so the question was: did Trunks grab his mother and run, or use the distraction to get the jump on the invader?

Inwardly, Trunks snorted. The question was already answered. Blood pumped through his veins hard and fast at the mere thought of a fight, erasing the last vestiges of sleep and good judgment. Something, something inside him that he didn't understand, that his mother had cursed "saiyan," and an end to all ends, told him survival wasn't good enough.

The window rattled again. Trunks continued to lie still, listening as the windowpane slid upwards with a muffled sound not unlike a broom sweeping across a kitchen floor. Booted feet whispered against the thick carpet. Trunks clenched his fists in the blanket that covered his body. He'd take him by surprise as the intruder crept past. Three, two—

"Trunks you goon," a familiar voice cut through the young boy's countdown to Armageddon, "if you're going to think through your battle plan, _do it in your head!"_

"Gohan!" Trunks gave a start and threw back his covers. "What are you doing here," the young boy asked, sitting up in his bed to see his mentor carefully slide the window shut. Trunks made to turn on his room light, but the older demi-saiyan stopped him with a hand; so instead Trunks watched Gohan's silhouette slowly drag itself across the room, as if each next step might be the last.

"Gohan, are you all right?" Trunks asked, "What happened?"

"I'm fine. Nothing happened," Gohan grunted as he collapsed in the chair that was a fixture beside Trunks' bed. "I need some food, Trunks."

Trunks eyed the man with a mixture of worry and suspicion, "You used a senzu bean, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question, thrown into the air with a low, accusative growl. The sound caught Gohan off guard, and he almost double taked to ensure himself that it was Trunks, and not his father, that sat next to him.

Either way, the sound made him wince. "Only one."

"That's too many. You know you shouldn't," Trunks scowled at his mentor even as he hopped from his bed and walked over to his dresser on the other side of the room. "Mother warned you that the senzu beans weren't good for you right now." Trunks pulled out a small dino cap and compressed the button. There was a puff of smoke as the capsule exploded into a giant bento box with a top that didn't quite close. Crab legs and bits of octopus peeked out of the opening.

Trunks grunted under the unexpected weight before heaving the dinner for eight at Gohan. "You gotta—oof!—eat all this, if you don't wanna get really sick tomorrow."

The bento box dropped onto Gohan's lap, the lid popping fully open to reveal not only a variety of sushi and local noodle dishes, but a container of spaghetti and what Gohan suspected might be half a chicken. He sighed, "I don't think that's avoidable, Squirt."

"It would be if you ate regularly," Trunks replied, watching as Gohan broke apart a pair of chopsticks and began fiddling with the spaghetti.

Gohan gave his young friend a look. "We've been through this, Trunks."

The boy sighed in response, dropping his chin to his chest. "Yeah, maybe, but I still don't understand. I mean, I don't think that Goku—"

"Where's your mom, Squirt?" Gohan shoved a devilled egg into Trunks' open mouth. He'd had enough of that today.

"I' dhu 'rabh." Trunks attempted a coherent answer around the egg and yolk fluff, paprika spraying from his mouth as he spoke.

Gohan wiped the strayed devilled yolk from his cheek and stood up. "The lab, huh? She's been in there a while."

"Yeah," Trunks agreed, standing also to follow Gohan out the room's door. "I think she's finally about to crack some equation she's been working on a while now. Something about time."

"Time? As in clocks?" Gohan floundered his way through the Briefs' house, trying to remember his way to the kitchen without the aid of light

"Time, as in travel." Trunks flitted around the blindly groping Gohan, taking the empty bento box from the man's hand as he did. "Still hungry?"

"Never hungry."

"But you still want more?" Trunks hooked a left around a sheet-covered couch.

"Need more." Gohan followed Trunks' movement.

Trunks tisked and shook his head, pausing at the doorway Gohan recognized as the kitchen's entrance. "Shouldn't have had that senzu bean."

"Who had a senzu bean?"

The kitchen light clicked on to reveal the Briefs matriarch in her full glory: a tattered lab coat over lumpy cotton pajamas, red rimmed bifocals perched on a petite, though somewhat pointy, noise, and long blue green pulled back in a loose pony tail tied at the base of her neck. She blinked owlishly at the boys before her, one hand poised on the freezer door, the other accessorizing her outfit with a carton of marmalade ice cream.

"Mom!"

"Bulma!"

"Well, hello you two." Bulma shut the freezer and moved to the silverware drawer, drawing out a miniature shovel. "Trunks, why are you up so late? And what's this I hear about a senzu bean?"

Trunks and Gohan exchanged desperate looks, "uh…"

Sensing something amiss, the bespectacled owl morphed into a clear-eyed hawk. Her sharp vision swept up and down Gohan's barely erect form, taking in his shaking legs and trembling hands before she looked straight into his pale, drawn face. Gohan watched the storm clouds build and tensed, preparing for a tongue-lashing.

Instead he got a defeated sigh. "For Kami's sake, Gohan, sit down before you pass out. Trunks, feed him."

She was rewarded with two sheepish looks. "Yes, ma'am."

Bulma rolled her eyes at the two boys and she seated herself at the island table. She ignored Gohan's careful climb into a chair across from her own in favor of pulling the lid off her ice cream.

"Oh!" Bulma exclaimed, "I just _adore_ marmalade! Its so hard to come by these days." The oversized spoon dipped straight into the carton and then made a beeline to her mouth. Three more shovel scoops followed in quick succession to the first before the woman paused to execute delicate tongue licks around the edge of her spoon. "A Guinness would top it off, really. Too bad I drank the last bottle when I proved the flux theory." Bulma gave a dramatic sigh, "a genius like myself should have more opportunities to celebrate properly."

"What happened, Mom?" Trunks asked between bites of cereal. Cheerios never died; they just got a little stale as expiration dates passed by. "What did you do?"

"Something secret." Bulma's eyes twinkled behind her scratched lenses. "The theory's still in the developing stage, but the equation is right and the proof is all laid out."

"That's great!" Trunks took another bite. "Can I see your work soon?"

Bulma dug deep into her ice cream. "You'll do more than see it, son. If the theory holds."

Gohan looked up from his meatloaf. Something in the way she had said that…

"Must be a pretty interesting theory, Bulma, if it's got you both this excited."

"Hm," the scientist agreed, twirling the tip of her spoon against her bottom lip. "It is. But not as interesting as another theory I have."

The older of the half-breeds popped a head of broccoli into his mouth. "Which is that?"

"You've heard it before, I think." Bulma cocked a deep blue eyebrow at the young man. "About senzu bean healing abilities its and effects on the body."

Gohan stopped chewing and swallowed hard. He was getting that tongue lashing after all. "Aa—"

"Yes, very interesting, I'd say," Bulma continued, deliberately not watching Gohan squirm in his chair. She instead used her spoon to draw patterns in her softening marmalade ice cream. "Those senzu beans are amazing. Took me forever to realize that it was the _chewing_ action that released the metabolic compounds, not just breaking the sucker open." The pattern in her dessert had become a picture, a flame. "From there it was easy for someone as smart as I am; just follow the reaction!" Bulma gave her audience a thumbs up; she drew an oblong circle beneath the flame. "A miracle of nature, really, those beans. Using stored energy in the body to facilitate natural healing and regeneration—I don't think it would have been possible without Kami's help. He was a clever green bean."

"They both were," Gohan stared down at his half empty plate. Trunks looked up from his fourth helping of Wheaties.

"Maybe, but not clever enough." Bulma replied. She'd accidentally nicked her circle, and a heavy line ran across, just over the middle, like a heavy set of eyebrows, or scowling eyes. "If Kami was really smart, he would have stored the energy necessary to heal the body in the bean itself, instead of relying on the person to have enough of a supply to get through the process." She looked meaningfully at Gohan, "because when there's no stored energy, _like if someone doesn't eat_, then the senzu bean has to utilize other sources, and will keep drawing on the body until it digests. And—"

"And I get it," Gohan replied, trying hard not to sound irritated. "I'll be sucked dry. I know Bulma, _I know._"

"Well," Bulma huffed. 'There's no need to get testy."

Gohan rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Of course not."

A wet splat smacked against Gohan's cheek. The saiyan touched his cheek and drew his fingers back to see orange cream running down his skin.

"Behave, young man," Bulma waved her spoon at him in a threatening manner and bits of marmalade ice cream flew from the silverware with every shake of her hand. "This is serious. Those beans will you eat you from the inside out, if you don't take care of yourself."

"I'm trying," Gohan replied, wiping away the offending ice cream.

"Try harder," came the blunt reply. Bulma tried smooth out the crater she had formed from her earlier stabs. "I hope for whatever reason you used it was important enough to risk yourself like that."

"Important," Gohan hedged, "important enough."

"But you're not going to tell me exactly what." Bulma let one blue eyebrow hike to her hairline.

Gohan shook his head and reached over to spear a slice of meat. It went straight into his mouth while two more appeared on his plate.

"Well, be that way then," Bulma sniffed, "but keep in mind that unless you start eating regularly and put on some serious poundage, you won't be able to safely use another senzu bean for…six months or so, I'd say."

Gohan choked on his fork. "Six months!"

"At least!" Bulma emphasized. "_Minimally,_ it'll take that long for your body replace what it lost today in terms of what energy stores you had left and what mass it took from the rest of you. Those senzu beans are dangerous for you right now, Gohan. Use one again soon and you won't be ill—you'll be dead. And I don't know how well your mother would take that, all things considered."

At that, Gohan was silent for a count of breaths. He stared hard at the table space in front of him, and Bulma could see him weighing the options with the risks. Her spoon ticked back in forth in the ice cream, meticulously adding details to picture she couldn't quite figure out yet. Maybe it was a monkey. No, more like, a person, a man—

Gohan let out an explosive breath. "You're right," he conceded, "as usual. I'm running low, anyway. No more."

"Good." Bulma smiled, "its nice to see that you still have some sense left."

"Bulma…"

"Now, about sleeping arrangements." The scientist ploughed past Gohan's tortured sigh, "you can lay out a futon in the den. Trunks, go fetch Gohan an extra quilt or two. There should some in the hall closet."

"Sure, Mom." Trunks hopped from his stool and scurried from the kitchen. He'd remained a near mute for the entire conversation between the two adults, not an easy task for any ten-year old, so the chance to run the errand was a welcome relief.

The boy hurried down the hall to the closet. He kicked the door a few times to give the mice a chance to scuddle out of the way before grabbing the door and letting it swing wide. Trunks had barely enough time to let out a startled "ack!" before an avalanche of cloth greeted him, knocking him down and burying him beneath a mountain of thermal blankets, folding cots, spare futons, and pillows.

_Good grief_, he thought, pushing aside the waves of blankets to surface at the top of the pile. _I know we gotta stockpile, but this is ridiculous!_ Trunks sputtered and thrashed his way through the blankets. With all the supplies his mother had accumulated, they'd be able to safely house half the city when the androids next came through. The thought made him pause.

When they came.

Not if.

Extracting himself from the pile, Trunks meticulously refolded each blanket and mattress and tucked them back into the closet, making sure to leave one out for Gohan. He eyed the stack and decided that there was enough room for a half dozen more, then reached for the pillows to place on top of the quilts. Any little bit more would help.

Heading back down the hall, Trunks approached the kitchen in time to catch the tail end of a conversation.

"—Chi Chi will understand. I'll call her first thing tomorrow to tell her you're having breakfast with us instead."

A breath of relief, "Thank you, Bulma. I appreciate this—and everything." Gohan's shadow appeared in the doorway, his body stopped from following by the silhouette of slender, shaking hand catching his elbow. With a start, Trunks realized that it was his mother's.

"Just tell me, Gohan. Today, the senzu bean. It wasn't the androids, was it?"

"No, not this time." There was a smile in Gohan's voice, warm and reassuring.

Bulma must have thought so, too. Trunks watched the hand's shadow fall from Gohan's. Happy, relieved, tired.

"Oh, thank God—"

A chuckle. "No, not God, Bulma." The boy watched the outline of his mentor's shoulders shake with an unspoken joke. "Definitely not God. By the way, your ice cream's melting."

There was a surprised exclamation and a curse. Trunks heard Gohan chuckle again as his silhouette in the doorway became corporal. The older half saiyan's exhausted but large, bright eyes caught sight of Trunks paused by the light switch.

"Hey squirt, got those blankets?"

"What? Oh, yeah." Trunks fumbled with the sleeping supplies as he tried hard not to look like an eavesdropper, "you wanna sleep in the den, right?"

"Sure," the older of the half-breeds smiled and took the futon and quilt from the boy. "Then tomorrow, how about you and I spend the day together?"

Trunks' eyes widened. "You mean it? Just you and me?"

"You and me, kiddo." Gohan winked, "so get some sleep."

"All _right_!" Trunks jumped in the air and whooped, much too animated for a person up during the witching hour, then sped past the kitchen with a quick holler of good night to Gohan and Bulma, promising to see them both in the morning.

Gohan laughed quietly at the child's antics, rearranging the wrinkled futon mattress in his arms for a better grip. "You wouldn't guess he was sick just a day ago, would you, Bulma. Bulma?"

Confused at her failure to respond, Gohan stepped back into the kitchen. "Bulma? Is everything…okay…" Gohan stopped as he witnessed the older woman staring down at her tub of ice cream with a mixture of horror and fascination. Gohan watched with his own disbelief as the normally collected scientist's face collapsed and tears began rolling down her cheeks to fall into the container in front of her. Bulma reached for the spoon she'd been wielding all night, and with surprising force stabbed at her ice cream. The softened dessert gave way under her attack and the demi-saiyan watched as she swirled the marmalade ice cream with desperate, forceful strokes before slamming the lid back on the carton and hurling the container into the garbage compactor. Her back to him, Gohan slipped out of the kitchen. No, everything was not all right.

From the den, snug between the thick futon mattress and two old, mouse smelling quilts, Gohan closed his eyes and pretended that the soft sobbing he heard drifting through the house was just another night noise. Crickets chirped. An owl hooted at the moon. A woman cried in her kitchen. _Just like home._

The food in his belly turned to lead. Nightmares stole his sleep.

_Just like home._

_

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This is also why I ended a bit short. I got to that ending and was like, no way can I write anything after that. I wanted to rewrite the chapter end a bit, but then decided I like the way it stops. Its uncomfortable, both emotionally and format wise. Or it seems that way to me. Anyway, tell me what you think! 

P.S. A big shout out to all of you who reviewed the last few times. I'm so sorry I forgot to thank everyone! Its great to read review and very encouraging, especially those of the frequent visitors and leavers of multi-liners. And to those that don't review but still stop by, I hope you keep coming back and that the story remains worth your time.


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